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Everyone seems sure that Ackley at 2nd is his "wrong" spot and it's "messing up the lineup." Carp outhit Ackley last year, and Dustin has tons more trade value than Carp as the #2 pick in the draft, so if they're playing the same position of LF why waste Dustin's trade potential? I'm sure somebody doesn't have the problem of people squeezing a future All-Star for his position and would love to play Ackley at 2nd.
Trade him.
Then everybody can play their "correct" positions and we won't have any worries. That works for all of us, right?
Liddi has enormous potential, he always has. If he's finally figured out how not to swing at stupid pitches, that will be huuuuuge for us. Or for someone, anyway.
Seager just keeps trending up. Carp WAS very good last year, we'll see if he can keep it up when he comes back from his separated shoulder. Wells has HR abilities, and Jaso is a decent hitter for a backup catcher. Montero's got the C/DH thing locked up.
Smoak still can't hit early in the year. That's an issue. Neither can Ackley, but Smoak's had twice as much time in the bigs.
If we need to replace Smoak internally, we have limited options available: Liddi, who conveniently doesn't have a position and can thump, or Catricala, who is not hitting like a 1B. We have ZERO useful first basemen in the minors. Or we could move Ackley over, since he played first in college, and clear up the jam that way.
Until we figure out what's up with Smoak at first and if he is the long-term man for that job there is no way I move Ackley anywhere. Can we get Liddi ABs between 1B/3B/DH? I would think so. Once Olivo and Figgins aren't getting significant at-bats any more that frees us up to be far more flexible with deploying the kids and still getting 400 ABs for Liddi and a couple hundred for Jaso.
But if we want to bet the farm that Liddi and Seager should be out there all the time at their "correct positions" then we need to trade either Smoak or Ackley - and Smoak's value is basically nil right now.
Re-distributing Ackley to a lesser glove position where he may not outhit Carp, or Catricala, or Wells, doesn't make a ton of sense to me. Because if Carp or Wells struggle then we just go get a vet outfielder and can them (or make em backups). We're not canning the 2nd overall pick in the draft without a lot of mileage.
Take a look at Alex Gordon in KC for an example. He got 3 years of mileage at his glove position (3B) and 4 unproductive years overall before a move to the outfield helped him produce at the plate.
Somebody would give us a productive LF right NOW in exchange for Ackley and his 6 remaining years at 2B. Why wait for Ackley to learn how to hit like a plus LF? If we don't want him there, then trade him and get me my veteran bat.
~G