Do It Now: A Dustin Ackley Extension
When you look at what has made a team like the Tampa Bay Rays successful over the last few years you always talk about their young players. But not just about their young players but their ability to keep them on team friendly contracts. I’m not just talking about the Matt Moore contract, but look at Evan Longoria, BJ Upton, James Shields, Ben Zobrist and even Carl Crawford a few years ago.
They have done a superior job at keeping their young core together as long as possible and they have done it by signing them early to long term extensions that aren’t necessarily just team friendly but also give in detail the parameters of a future budget. Obviously the Mariners don’t have the issues that the Tampa Bay Rays do when it comes to such a budget.
That said players like Michael Pineda and Dustin Ackley aren’t going to be cheap for very long, especially considering the new terms of the CBA signed in November that all but guarantee both Pineda and Ackley as super two arbitration cases next winter.
Dave Cameron has already talked about signing Pineda to a long term deal and has pointed out a lot of what I’ve already said. So it basically sounds like I read the article and am just reiterating it all for Dustin Ackley. Here’s the thing, Ackley doesn’t represent nearly as the amount of risk that is associated with signing Pineda long term.
Tags: ben zobrist, dustin ackley, Dustin Pedroia, Extension, Off-Season
Posted in Mariners