I'd keep Ackley down for the first 2 months. Kennedy is fine for now. Kennedy, Ryan and Jack Wilson can put a patch on the SS/2B position for 8 weeks.
Watching Ackley play 2B in Arizona, though, he looks like his instincts are coming around just fine. I didn't see him turn any crazy double plays, but for the time he was in the game his fielding, base coverage, reaction times, etc were all terrific. Smoak is good with a glove at 1B too, so that'll help - he's pretty agile for a big guy.
Honestly I let Ackley go down to save that extra year, the arb funds, and to let him get a good head of steam up heading into the bigs.
Pineda might be up sooner. He could very well break camp with the team, and I'd have no problem with that. I don't expect the Mariners to wait until June for him, but I wouldn't be shocked to see him take a couple of starts in Tacoma waiting for the 3 weeks to pass to get his extra year.
Pitchers aren't hitters. It's very hard to plan for 6-7 years down the line. There are only so many bullets in the gun, so Pineda might as well use them in the bigs.
But as cost-conscious as the Ms are, I'd expect Pineda to be sent down for at least a little bit. If he isn't, that would be very interesting to me.
~G
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