Veteran infielder/outfielder Dustin Ackley is headed back to his original organization, as he’s agreed to a minor league contract with the Mariners, according to multiple reports (including Fancred’s Jon Heyman, on Twitter).
Ackley, now 30 years of age, hasn’t appeared in the Majors since a brief 2016 run with the Yankees, where he hit .148/.243/.148 in a small sample of 70 plate appearances. He’s spent the past two seasons with the Angels’ Triple-A affiliate, where he’s gotten on base at a solid clip but struggled to hit for power despite playing in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. In 284 plate appearances last season, Ackley hit .286/.378/.398 with four homers, 13 doubles and a triple.
Selected by the Mariners out of North Carolina with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2009 draft, Ackley was viewed as an advanced college bat who could quickly move through the system. That proved to be the case, as he was in the Majors two years later and hit .273/.348/.417 — good for a 120 OPS+ at the age of 23. However, Ackley’s bat cratered in his sophomore season with the M’s, and he’s batted only .235/.296/.358 over the life of 1971 plate appearances in parts of five big league seasons since that time. Ackley’s addition is a depth move for the Mariners, as he’ll likely open the season in Triple-A Tacoma as he looks to work his way back to the big leagues for the first time in nearly three full years.
astromariner
Aww man, I threw away my Dustin Ackley bobblehead.
snuffle1upagus
Let’s get the band back together with Smoak and Montero next!
livingpaint
Ahhh remember those days of signing/trading for nothing but first-basemen?
BobbyAyala94
Jeff Clement
Benjamin560
“We’re on a mission from God!”
“See. I usually write the check in the car on the dashboard”.
kdub53
It’s a special check. We both have to sign it.
We’ll talk to Bob.
mlb1225
What’s Danny Hultzen up to these days? Wonder if he’s willing to make a comeback.
K_Man915
Last I heard he was still trying to make it to the show in the cubs system.
wayneroo
Unbelievable.
yourslacker
If he can continue getting on base he could make a decent multi position bench piece
commercecomet7
Ball players are generally a superstitious bunch. Ackley has stunk ever since he grew that hillbilly beard. Maybe shave and see if stroke returns, even though it didn’t help with Yankee short stint. If the Ms could have just choked out a loss on the last day of the 2008 season, they would have Steven Strasburg, instead of Jed Clampett.
ayrbhoy
So true dude! As soon as he grew the bush he went downhill! Haha forgot about that
Yankeepatriot
Ack was ok with us years back. Wasn’t he a former top draft pick ?
Ruben_Tomorrow 2
He was supposed to be a star with the Mariners.
connorreed
Yup, second overall pick and ranked in Baseball America’s Top 15 twice. From what I remember, he was considered a very low floor prospect, too, considering how succesful he was at UNC, his work ethic and IQ, baseball background (father played), and his pure, left-handed swing. Looking back at some old scouting reports, Baseball America said “he combines all the necessary ingredients to win batting titles in the big leagues” and “scouts regarded Ackley as one of the most polished hitters to come out of the draft in years”. He actually signed a five year Major League deal after being drafted. He had one of the best AFL performances ever in 2010 (20 games, 28 runs, 19 RBI, .424/.581/.758, 26 walks to 11 strikeouts).
Not sure what went wrong exactly, but just goes to show how unpredictable prospects can be.
CobiEven
Great information! I enjoyed the AFL stats. I hope someone else might have a heads up on what went wrong.
Benjamin560
Couldn’t hit the outside pitch the other way, or cover the outside half of the plate, once scouting reports were out.
marinerfan
If that’s true, how did the M’s scouts not pick that up while watching him in college? Seems pretty basic. Another reason to doubt the ability of the Mariners scouting Dept.
Benjamin560
It was just from a fans observation. I’m sure there was probably a lot more too it.
Johnny
Mariners were in the lead for strasburg going into the last 3 games of the regular season. Riggleman decided to play all his regulat players for those 3 games, and the Ms ended up sweeping the A’s. The upshot is that the Nats ended up with strasburg, and the Ms ended up with Ackley.
Benjamin560
I couldn’t believe it either.
bradthebluefish
Thanks Riggleman *eyeroll*
ceebeck59
We won the last two games because of two walkoff homers by, of all people, Yuniesky Betancourt. Freakin’ Yuni cost us Strasburg.
SadMsFan
Ackley has always sucked an was a horrible draft pick. The Mariners are idiots…cough, cough, I mean lost at sea…with no chance of getting anywhere…
ReverieDays
Dude couldn’t even crack a mediocre Angels roster the past two years.
bradthebluefish
Right!? With all those injuries too!? Not good.
ck420
Even on a minor league deal why?
mmarinersfan
If you can actually explain why not, then go ahead
rhymeoftheancientmariner
There are several minor leaguers who haven’t had the chance to show what they’re capable of yet. Bringing this guy back in to our system is meaningless…especially after the young talent we’ve acquired. We know what this guy is already and he’s not getting any better.
ayrbhoy
Since JP Crawford will stay in Tacoma till mid May looks like Ackley will be at 2nd or SS until JP comes. Wonder how Ackley’s Defense is these days?
Corazon5
Probably not good enough for SS
muskie73
One-time Gold Glove second baseman Dee Gordon was adequate at shortstop last year in a small sample of 65 innings:
fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=8203&posit…
Perhaps Gordon will be the shortstop until JP Crawford comes up.
Benjamin560
Dipoto assured us that they were gonna sign a veteran and leave Dee at his natural position. Plus Seattle brought in Dee’s former infield coach. I highly doubt Gordon will be playing regularly at SS. He’s good in a pinch though.
bradthebluefish
It is an innovative idea. Plenty of veteran SS on the FA market. I bet Dipoto will find somebody. My vote is Jose Iglesias if the money is right. Terrific defense.
ayrbhoy
Bradthebluefish- Jose Iglesias would be a great fit but it’s going to be difficult to sell him (or any veteran SS) on 6-8 weeks of playing time. I can see Dee filling in at SS, Ackley at 2nd until Crawford comes up from Tacoma then Ackley slotting into that Taylor Motter/utility role rest of 2019. Think about it- Ackley bats LH, plays INF and OF. Provided he can still hit ML pitching of course!!
connorreed
Well first he’s got to prove he can be a Major League player, which he hasn’t.
I can see him playing 2B, but I don’t see why he’d ever slot in at short. He hasn’t played an inning there during his entire professional career (although he did play in high school). Even in his younger years, he was mostly just an average defender at second. Plus, he’s only played 27 games at 2B in the past three seasons, mostly slotting in at first or in the outfield.
Amp2324
this is why Seattle made self injection sites
bobtillman
Another of those “absolutely can’t miss” future HOFer who just fizzled…….fans of teams searching for Kluber or MadBum should pay attention……
I’ll always gives Ackley credit…always played hard, effort certainly wasn’t the issue….just had a tough timer getting his bat to quality stuff…..and that was necessary, since even in college he was “meh” defensively……
Free Clay Zavada
Nobody ever called him a hall of famer.
He was always billed as an advanced bat, which turned out to be true due to his early success. However, his approach got exploited and he couldn’t adjust.
davidcoonce74
Nah, even at the time he was considered an overdraft. Svcouts saw him as an advanced bat who might turn into a guy like Jody Reed. Of course, even having that career would have been great, but pitchers found some obvious weakness in Ackley’s swing and he apparently wasn’t able to adjust. Happens a lot; baseball’s draft is the most volatile of the major sports, not only because of the huge number of high schoolers who are drafted but also because the transition to wooden bats isn’t always a given. There have been plenty of top-10 draft picks who never even got out of the low minors.
SadMsFan
? Really? I literally thought that was sarcasm until you said “I’ll always give Ackley credit…” Then you made me vomit. He sucks. Period. You don’t give anyone credit who sucks.
BenjiB24
Please don’t use him in the outfield again
warwhatisitgoodfor
Can’t wait to get that new Ackley bobblehead this year
throwinched10
I’m ok with rebuilding for 2021, but let’s not re-live bad memories in the process…
bradthebluefish
Hahaha
baumann
How is he only 30?
rhymeoftheancientmariner
We have to re-live this misery again? Let’s give Danny Hultzen a deal too and see what Jesus Montero is up to.
rjsuitor
This guy was so over rated by the media it was laughable …he stinks
Moneyballer
Says the guy behind a computer who probably couldn’t hit an 80mph heater if his or her life depended on it. Troll on, scrub.
drawny
What scrub thinks 80mph is a heater?
Moneyballer
Prove them wrong, make me dig up my many Ackley rookie cards scattered throughout my commons for reprocessing! Best of Luck, for real.
marinerfan
Divish has a good review of Ackley’s history in a story in the Seattle Times.
bigdaddyhacks
Why trash the guy? Sure he’s a bust but he’s in the show. We are all arm chair quarterbacks. Hope the best for
Him. He’s a super nice guy in person.
SadMsFan
Who cares, he sucks…If you hit below .250, then you deserve to be ridiculed and booed. The slightest hint of praise for anyone as bad as Ackley is nauseating and would make any reasonable person want to literally die.
Phil253
Purely depth and might I add “player/coach.” Still was a fun guy to watch play when he was healthy.
24TheKid
I’m not sure what you were watching if you thought it was fun to watch him play.
SadMsFan
You must think Dave Sims is fun to listen to…My God, Seattle fans are the worst…
SadMsFan
Why are Seattle Mariners fans the dumbest idiots in the history of professional sports? Tribal people on some remote island in the South Pacific have better sense when it comes to Mariners baseball than Seattleites do…I’d ask them who Dustin Ackley is and they’d probably get all confused and have no idea what I was even saying…and I’d respond with “exactly.” Cause he always has and always will be a nobody…Signing Ackley is simply demoralizing and would make any reasonable Seattleite want to vomit and die…or move to Houston, where they have a competent organization.