Ichiro looking forward to a visit in Seattle.

MIAMI — The first time Ichiro Suzuki played as a visitor in Seattle was disorienting for the long-time Mariners star.

He didn’t even view it as returning to face his former team because in reality he’d never left.

When the trade to the New York Yankees was made on July 23, 2012, his new team had just arrived for a series at Safeco Field.

“I was in Seattle and we played the Mariners that day. So it wasn’t a comeback, I was there, I just transferred to a different location in the same stadium. I switched locker rooms,” Ichiro said Sunday, a day before making a much-longer journey with the Miami Marlins for three games this week in his old stomping grounds.

In that first game as a Yankee, he said, “When I got a hit and the inning ended, I started to run towards the dugout on the first-base side where the Mariners are instead of going to the third-base side where the visitors, the Yankees were. So that was kind of different.”

This figures to be an altogether different experience in the opposing dugout facing the Mariners for whom the Japanese superstar played the first 11

1⁄2 seasons of his career in the major leagues and amassed 2,533 hits. He hasn’t played at Safeco since 2014, his last season with the Yankees before signing with the Marlins.

His legend has grown in the intervening years. It was as a Marlin that he became the 30th player to get 3,000 hits in MLB last Aug. 7.

The Mariners will recognize the achievement with an unusual doublebobblehead giveaway on Wednesday. The twin figures depict Ichiro as a Mariner in 2004 when he set a major league singleseason record with 262 hits, and in the Marlins road gray uniform he wore when he hit a triple in Colorado for hit No. 3,000.

Asked what he thought when he saw a photo of the bobbleheads, Ichiro smiled and said, “It’s not necessarily what it looked like. The Mariners are really good at marketing stuff, so that’s what I thought.”

In signing with the Marlins, Ichiro couldn’t have picked a farther destination in MLB from his original team to his third. Passage of time has added to the distance.

Now 43 and a part-time player, Ichiro went into Sunday with 3,031 hits. He has made only one start this season.

But with the designated hitter opening another spot in the lineup, as well as his storied past at Safeco, it will likely provide notable opportunity for Ichiro in the series.

Prado ready

Eager for a different return is Martin Prado, who completed a fourgame rehab assignment with High-A Jupiter and was expected to be activated for the Seattle series.

The third baseman went 3 for 9 with four walks. But most important the hamstring he strained during the World Baseball Classic held up well running the bases and in the field.

“I think I’m as close as I can be to playing at this level,” Prado said, though he doesn’t expect his timing at the plate to be tiptop immediately. “[Saturday], I finally started to, seeing the ball better.”