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and one I completely agree with at a fundamental level.
Ackley lost himself in his second year. I have often wondered if the beard was a sign of psychological weakness or lost-ness, a mask to hide behind. The pure athletic talent is still there.
I'll be honest, the M's made Ackley such a key ingredient in their future plans that it stuns me they haven't done more to get through to him. If multiple managers can't, then contract somebody gifted in sports psychology to work with him. The frustrating thing about Dustin is that he is precisely a kind of hitter the M's need. Until Cano came along we penciled him in as a future #3 hitter. He has that sort of chops in him, it's just locked away in a closet inside him dying to get out, and he's lost the key.
As you say, if the M's haven't solved him by now, they aren't going to. It's going to take some other team's approach, some other coach or something, a change of scenery that opens up possibilities he doesn't see here. And when that happens, Seattle is going to rue their inability to do what someone else will have done.