Wilson Stays In Town Three Mariners Leave

A busy day in Seattle in the last twenty-four hours; it started with Dustin Ackley being traded to the New York Yankees by the Mariners. We then learned Friday morning that Russell Wilson signed a four year contract extension which will keep him with the Seahawks for five more years. Later in the day the Mariners traded Mark Lowe to Toronto Blue Jays and J.A. Happ to the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The signing of Russell Wilson was expected to be signed by today or they would put it on the shelf until next season; however, neither did the Seahawks or Wilson wanted to wait. A major reason the Seahawks wanted to sign Wilson now they are looking to give an extension to middle linebacker Bobbie Wagner as well, and they need to know how much money would still need to sign him under the salary cap. At this point hard to know if the Seahawks will sign in the days ahead or put him off until next year. The problem is how many top players the Seahawks can keep around because of the salary cap.

The reason the Seahawks and Wilson wanted to take care of the signing now because Friday July 31 is the beginning of training camp, and he wanted to concentrate on playing football. He will play this season on the final year of the current contract; however, a part of the new contract is a $30 million signing bonus. He is getting $20 of it now and the remaining next April.

Another part of opening of training camp is that strong safety Cam Chancellor did not report; he is staying away because he is not happy with the amount of his contract. The problem though he has three years remaining on the contract, and the Seahawks don’t renegotiate with that much left on the contract. He will be fined seventy thousand dollars a day for each day he misses camp, however, the Seahawks like him so much likely they won’t have him pay it. I am sure he will be in camp eventually after getting his point across.

The trading of Dustin Ackley to the Yankees means the Mariners finally gave up on him. He was a second overall pick in the draft and never lived up his expectations. He is a really nice guy so we can hope that he will become a good Yankee player. He may be playing second base again with Yankees and some outfield as well. Since he has been in the major leagues for five years likely he won’t be the player the Mariners drafted. The Mariners got two minor league players for Ackley. They receive a left handed hitting outfielder who will go to Tacoma, and right handed reliever Ramirez who will report to the Mariners because of the trading of Lowe and J.A. Happ. One of the three left handed relievers the Mariners got back from Toronto Rob Rasmussen will report to the Mariners. One of the two Ramirez and Rasmussen will report to Tacoma when it is the spot in the rotation where J.A. Happ was pitching. At that point Elias will be brought back up to take Happ’s spot in the rotation. The Mariners also made  other moves bringing up young shortstop Katel Marte who will also play second while Cano is out and most likely play some shortstop and may see him in center field when they want to give Austin Jackson a day off. Also, Jesus Montero came back up to replace Dustin Ackley. He will play first base and dh. According to Lloyd McClendon they expect to play him a lot so they can see what he can do.

For the remaining of the summer we can see what the Mariners have left in them. It could be they may relax and win more ball games while we get to watch the Seahawks to see what they can do to prepare going after another Super Bowl. Go Mariners and Seahawks!