The Seattle Mariners have been going through a tough stretch of the season after winning two out of three games at Yankee Stadium earlier in the year and after losing eight in a row since, the team has decided to send down two of its biggest prospects back to the minors in Dustin Ackley and Jesus Montero.
According to the Associated Press, the Mariners sent both Ackley and Montero down to Triple-A Tacoma after struggles at the plate and for Montero, struggles on the field, including one play that cost the Mariners a game when he could not keep his foot on home plate, allowing the winning run to score. Montero was never expected to be a full time catcher while with the Yankees, but the Mainers hoped he could develop into on after trading for him, but that so far has not happened. His play at the plate didn't do him any favors and his hitting wasn't enough to keep him on the major league roster after having a .208 batting average on the season.
The Mariners decision to demote Ackley was a tough one for the team and manager Eric Wedge, as he was the second overall pick behind Stephen Strasburg in the draft and had some mighty struggles at the plate this season. The team decided to bring up prospect Nick Franklin from Tacoma to the delight of many fans and he made his debut on Monday night against the San Diego Padres in the team's 9-0 four-hit shutout from Aaron Harang. The 25-year-old second baseman has been dealing with an ankle injury since last season and he has been hitting just .111 over the last 16 games after getting up to .255 on May 4. After Sunday's game he was hitting .205 but some of the power and crisp hitting he showed in college was gone, as he had just five extra base hits over the last 45 games.
Seattle general manager Jack Zduriencik told reporters that he thought both Montero and Ackley needed to get more comfortable at the plate and that Montero needs to work more on his play at first base, as he will likely not be playing catcher much anymore. The team knows that Ackley has the skills and they feel that he will be able to get his timing back while working in the minors.
Franklin has been the one player that the Mariners were expected to call up, but the team hoped it wouldn't be this early in the year after expected to be in contention in the AL West. He was taken as a first round draft pick in 2009 and he started in Triple A last season and was hitting over .320 with four homes runs and 20 RBIs while playing for Tacoma and he is expected to be in the starting lineup in the next week and will play at second base.
"It was just time," Seattle manager Eric Wedge said. "Obviously, we fought for the guy for quite a period of time now and wanted to make it work up here and not have to do that. Ultimately, we couldn't take it any further."
