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 In what Wil Myers describes as his worst summer has turned out lucrative for the Thomasville teenager and now he launched his professional career Tuesday at Burlington Athletic Stadium.

Myers, a catcher and a graduate of Wesleyan Christian Academy in High Point, agreed to a signing bonus of about $2 million with the parent Kansas City Royals. He's slotted to play four games with the Appalachian League's Burlington Royals less than an hour's drive from his home before moving on next week.

"It has been real bad not being able to play," Myers told the Burlington Times-News in his first interview since he cut off interviews around the June draft date. "I had played every summer since I was 9. It has been the worst summer of my life." Now, it's better.

"I got the money I wanted," he said. "I just worried about playing ball." The plan is for Myers, 18, to be the designated hitter tonight and Friday, and he'll be Burlington's catcher Thursday and Saturday. He won't be on the bus Sunday when the Royals head to Princeton, W.Va. Instead, his next stop will be with the Idaho Falls Chukars of the Pioneer League.

"That's usually where they send all the big draft picks," Myers said.

Burlington manager Nelson Liriano said he hopes the one-week stay with the Burlington team is a good starting point for Myers.

"We're happy to have him because he has talent," Liriano said. "He needs more playing time and Idaho (Falls) has a longer season."

MARINERS: From the time he was taken with the No. 2 overall pick in June, North Carolina's Dustin Ackley expected the negotiations with the Seattle Mariners to be a drawn out process that took most of the summer.

But up until the final minutes before Tuesday's 12:01 a.m. EDT deadline?

"I knew this was kind of how it was going to go. I was willing to accept that," Ackley said on a conference call Tuesday morning. "At the end of the day when it was all said and done, good things were going to happen, and we were going to get a deal done with the Mariners."

His smooth left-handed swing is now locked up with the Mariners for the next five years, at the cost of at least $7.5 million. The contract also included that Ackley sign a major league contract and be added to the major league roster, a major sticking point during the negotiations between Seattle general manager Jack Zduriencik and Ackley's adviser, Scott Boras.

"It's real important," Ackley said. "Anytime you get the opportunity to be on the roster of a major league team ... I could never have imagined being on the roster of a team."

Those final additions to Ackley's deal stretched the signing process until about 15 minutes before the deadline to get draft picks signed, Zduriencik said.

If Ackley develops into the outfielder the Mariners hope, the strain in getting the deal done was worth it.

"He understood how important it was to be the No. 2 pick in the country. This is a great opportunity for this young man," Zduriencik said Monday night.

UNC's only three-time baseball All-American and the school's career batting leader with a .410 average hasn't played since the College World Series in late June.