3:06pm: The Rangers have discussed Lucroy with other teams, according to Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News (on Twitter).
1:56pm: The Rangers are open to trading catcher Jonathan Lucroy, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal reports (Twitter links). Lucroy is a free agent this winter and Texas is “highly unlikely” to make a qualifying offer to the catcher, Rosenthal writes, so the team could use Lucroy as a trade chip to address its struggling bullpen. The Rangers would go with Robinson Chirinos and Brett Nicholas as its catching tandem if Lucroy was dealt.
It was just under 11 months ago, of course, that Lucroy came to Texas in a blockbuster deadline deal that saw the Rangers give up a hefty prospect package (Lewis Brinson, Luis Ortiz, Ryan Cordell) to acquire Lucroy and Jeremy Jeffress from the Brewers. It was a stiff price but seemingly a fair one for one of the game’s best catchers, especially since Lucroy hit well and helped Texas win the AL West last season, while still being controllable in 2017 at a team-friendly price. The two sides had some talks about a contract extension last offseason, though a new deal ultimately didn’t materialize.
This year, however, has been a struggle for Lucroy. He entered today’s action hitting just .263/.311/.375 with four homers over 241 PA, with a career-low walk rate (5.4%) and hard-hit ball rate (22.9%). That latter number is the seventh-lowest hard-hit ball rat of any player in baseball this season with at least 240 PA. On the defensive side, Lucroy’s pitch-framing numbers have also declined, making his overall production for the season barely above replacement-level.
The Rangers entered today with only a 40-41 record, though that is still good enough to put them just two games out of a wild card spot in the crowded American League. Since the Astros are running away with the AL West, however, it isn’t clear whether Texas would make a big trade deadline push just for the sake of reaching the one-game wild card playoff. Yahoo’s Jeff Passan recently speculated that Lucroy could be a trade candidate if the Rangers fell out of the race, though given Lucroy’s lackluster performance, a deal wouldn’t necessarily mean Texas is throwing in the towel on the season. Chirinos has been on fire this season with a .918 OPS in 123 PA, so giving him more playing time could boost the lineup.
Chirinos was given a modest contract extension of his own last winter as the Rangers were seemingly preparing themselves if Lucroy left, though it is still somewhat remarkable that Lucroy has gone from a potential top-five free agent this winter to a player who seemingly won’t even get a qualifying offer. The Rangers obviously wouldn’t get anything for Lucroy close to what they gave Milwaukee last summer, though given Lucroy’s track record, Texas could still get something of value back. This is just my speculation, but the Rockies, Cubs and Angels stand out as contenders that could be looking for a catching upgrade at the deadline.
Errr… what? I thought they wanted to contend. You don’t trade a guy like Lucroy during a playoff push. It’ll be Yoenis Cespedes all over again.
If they end up trading Lucroy, do they end up trading Darvish as well?
They essentially have to because he’s a free agent at the end of the year. I know they want to re-sign him but the Yankees proved last year that trading a guy doesn’t mean you can’t re-sign him.
Neither is going to the Angels unless for Trout.
Why would you say that?
Haha I didn’t know we had Texas Rangers trolls… Glad to see we are inflicted with these bozos just like everyone else.
Madman, fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life son
What
Lucroy is not even close to Cespedes. The Tigers won the cespedes trade anyways.
Was referring to the A’s. The Tigers were clearly not trying to contend that year when they traded Cespedes and are looking pretty good for it now. When the A’s traded him they were leading the AL and then they collapsed afterwards.
I know Lucroy isn’t Cespedes but my point still stands that you don’t trade Major League contributors in the middle of a playoff push.
The Rangers are finished in the West. The Astros are running away with the division. They do have a chance at a Wild Card. However they probably believe that they can get the same production from there other catchers. Also Lucroy is much older than Cespedes when he was traded. Lucroy isn’t the main contributor in there lineup.
The A’s collapse started before the trade and injuries played a large part in what happened that season. They probably wouldn’t have made the playoffs without Lester.
Yeah they would have! They would have still had Cespedes! You NEVER trade a guy like that in the middle of a playoff race! EVER!
Ohh ok Cespedes has been traded 3 times so hard to figure which one you were referring to
It wasn’t like they traded Cespedes for a pair of low A pitchers. They traded him for a #1 starter in Lester. A #1 starter who had a 159 ERA+ and 1.9 rWAR after the trade compared to Cespedes who had a 98 OPS+ and 1.3 rWAR after the trade. This was also the same Cespedes who had a ..767 OPS at the time of the trade and a .573 OPS in the month of July leading up to the deadline. The A’s saw themselves as a team without a true #1 starter and 5 COF/1B/DH players with a .750+ OPS. They rolled the dice and traded one of them for that #1 they felt they were missing.
You don’t trade Cespedes or someone like him in the middle of a playoff race. Period. The A’s collapse was destined to happen when they did that.
What contribution Rangers getting from Lucroy? You bring up Cespedes with A’s as comparison? That’s a reach
Veteran catcher whose bat should bounce back. Contenders don’t trade Major League contributors.
Haha. “I don’t care about facts, this is my opinion, lalalala”
Well his opinion is formed by knowledge of baseball. I agree with everything TWCR is saying. Why trade a guy that has contributed to your team being in first place. That’s one of the reasons to trade prospects. They have not been contributing to the major league team so it’s okay to lose them instead of a contributor.
It’s a FACT, not an opinion, that Cespedes was one of the A’s’ biggest contributors and that you shouldn’t trade a guy like that in the middle of a playoff push.
How did the Tigers win the Cespedes trade? They got a decent starter, the Mets made the WS and now have Cespedes for 5 and a half years.
Because they got a young frontline starter who they control through 2022 for a guy they were going to lose anyway and the Mets didn’t get 5 years of Cespedes from that trade. They got 2 months plus the playoffs of him. Period. Then they signed him to a big contract in free agency. Period.
Doesn’t mean the mets did bad. The Tigers got the better haul in the long run. Thats all
convenient that you forget to mention the FA contract they had to sign cespedes to…
How did the Tigers win that trade? The Red Sox get a guy who won the Cy Young in that deal?!?!
Fulmer was better than Porcello last year, this year and in the future. He only won the Cy Young because the voters are idiots who still care about pitcher wins and losses.
Fulmer won an award too. Any team would take him over porcello
Porcello isn’t that good and probably should’ve finished third or fourth last year in CY voting. I think it was pretty fluky
Awards mean nothing look at the stats and Porcello wasn’t even a top 5 AL pitcher
it was a win-win trade for both teams what are you even talking about
They should sell. Not a WS caliber team this season anyway.
Ryan Cordell, not Dan
He also has a horrendous -13 framing runs at catcher per BP. Remember this is the guy who used to be considered an MVP candidate for his framing skills. I’d stay away.
Strange, how do you lose your framing skills? I think it might have more to do with his pitchers throwing to the corners.
I think it’s because he’s playing every other day and probably isn’t a fan of it
He’s playing every other day because he’s consistently swinging at pitches that almost hit him in the wrist and attempting to float the ball over the right side of the infield every at bat while hitting for no power
Ya I guess the pitchers could have something to do with it, although it’s not like the Brewers rotation was full of studs
They should be willing to trade anyone on the team. This includes Darvish, Hamels, Bush, Lucroy, Napoli, Odor, Andrus, Choo, etc… The Rangers aren’t set up to do any damage in the playoffs, if they were even lucky enough to sneak in. They would be better off making trades to lower payroll and to try and restock their minor league system.
Realistically they can’t compete with the Astros, but baseball is a funny game. Nobody thought the Cubs would be playing so poorly this year, and the Astros weren’t the same team last year without Keuchel. I think it’s a smart move to trade both Lucroy and Darvish.
Why? You’re right the Astros will probably win the division, but the wildcard is still very much within reach. A Darvish trade doesn’t make any sense though, he’s a rental so the return will be limited. Lucroy makes much more sense because Chirinos is out playing him this year anyway and it might be nice to get something back from the price -tag they paid to get him. This a clear “stand pat” year, no reason to breakdown the roster.
imo the rangers should trade darvish and lucroy, they lost a lot of prospects the last two years in getting hamels, trading for lucroy jeffers and beltran, darvish and lucroy would bring back some nice pieces.
I bet they don’t though. They are both rentals, I would much prefer to stand pat and see if we can make the wildcard. This would be a tough team to beat in a playoff series with a rotation of Darvish-Hamels-Ross, not too many teams can run that out there.
A Darvish trade makes sense if they think they can’t get a Wild Card spot this year. He’s a free agent at the end of the season whether you like it or not and keeping him won’t make him any more likely to re-sign with the Rangers come the offseason.
Darvish would bring back a haul even though he’s a rental, Lucroy should of went to the indians if I was him.
They have 2 good catchers that lead the league in throwing out base runners. He lost certainly made the right choice
Most certainly
That’s trading low on a lot of guys including. And I thought it was a seller’s market.
Why in the world would they trade odor and bush out of this list? And even andrus for that matter. His productivity continues to increase.
No to Hamels, Bush, Andrus, and Choo. Probably no to Gomez too. The rest, including Odor, can go.
Maybe to Cleveland?
No thanks! The Miller deal was great shortterm, but long term the best deal they made was getting his vetoed and then keeping Mejia and others. Lucroy was dumb, and backed it up with a subpar season
I will always wonder if Lucroy goes to Cleveland would they have gotten a ring?
I still think it would of went 7 games, but without carraso and salazar in the rotation, cubs would of still won.
Perez had some clutch hits in the series.
He wasn’t really dumb though. They wanted him to play first and he wanted to be a catcher. Can’t fault him for that and at the time Tecas was the more obvious team to do damage in the playoffs
Not necessarily, they just wouldn’t promise him he’d solely be a Catcher. He’d most likely would have been primarily a catcher, they were just too honest.
So this really bothers me… I live near Cleveland and I cannot honestly understand why this entire fanbase can’t understand that Lucroy turned them down because they wanted him to play firstbase. Lucroy was not dumb, he just didn’t want to change positions (which is his right). I hate to rant on a fanbase but this is seriously ridiculous that the entire town can’t seem to grasp this concept.
100% agree. He even said he greatly respected the Indians organization for being upfront with him about how they planned to use him.
They didn’t plan to only use him at 1B , they just wouldn’t make him a promise h wanted to hear. Considering how Gomes and Perez have hit he’d have been behind the plate, they just wouldn’t promise that.
I still don’t understand why this makes Lucroy dumb? Look at his numbers as a 1st baseman? They would be league average on a good day at an offensively important position. I would stay where I could be a full-time catcher as well. I can’t understand the hate for the guy? He even wrote a nice post to explain to Cleveland why he did it. This fanbase is hard to hangout with.
Dumb because he had a prime opportunity to chase a ring, something every player claims they want before they retire. He was getting dealt to a front running team with a great chance at the World Series. To decline and role the dice on this season, and then not have a great contract year doesn’t exactly look smart.
Rangers had a good shot at a ring last year too. My WS prediction as of 10 months ago was them and the Giants.
I think you’re forgetting that Cleveland was probably everybody’s least likely team in the AL to go far except for Baltimore. Almost everyone had Boston crushing them and when that didn’t happen, had Toronto beating Cleveland. Everybody thought Cleveland was just the beneficiary of a bad division and it wasn’t until this year, after their run and EE signing, that they’ve become a World Series caliber team in the eyes of most outside of Ohio
When he turned down Cleveland he had no idea he’d end up in Texas. For all he knew he was riding his deal out in Milwaukee.
And he never approved a deal to the Rangers. They weren’t on his no-trade list
No way the rangers can unload Choo, and Elvis is going to stay, so is Odor.
Rangers could deal Yu, Lucroy, Gomez, Ross, Cashner, Hamels, Nap. Wild Card trade candidates would be Bush, Cladido, Jeffers, maybe even Profar, and unlikely but for him to win a championship Beltre.
Cashner, Nap, Ross as of now won’t get much but they can get you a kid or 2 if we pay the salary.
Gomez, Yu would likely get a nice package, and Lucroy could 1 or 2 mid level guys.
Bush would be interesting. A guy with a big arm still learning to throw, with another 5 season of control. Could get a nice package, less than what the Phillies got for Giles but still 2/3 good prospects.
You forgot to mention that Bush is already 31, only has one solid MLB season under his belt, and just blew his fifth save (in 15 opp.). Not to mention that most teams probably want nothing to do with him considering his past.
This doesn’t make sense.
If it’s to “address their struggling ‘Pen”, that implies they want a major league ready reliever. Lucroy is a rental, so only a contender with a need at C will be interested. But no contender is going to trade away effective Major League ‘Pen arms.
They will have to get prospects instead.
I agree totally. I’ve seen this same sentiment several times this offseason and just don’t understand it. Anyone acquiring a rental player isn’t going to be trading an asset from their MLB team. It’s counterproductive except in very rare and specific circumstances. It should probably read more like trade Lucroy to get some prospects that will then help to offset the prospects they send out to acquire a RP. Or they try and swing a 3 team trade.
Robinson Chirinos’ time… Sorry Jonathan…
Dear Lucroy,
Thanks for turning down the Indians and letting them keep Francisco Mejia and Greg Allen.
Sincerely,
Indians fans
Exactly!
Here’s the deal. Lucroy is a solid catcher in the MLB, but he’s be replaced by Brett Nicholas who has proved himself in the minors. Check Nicholas’ stats out, he’s been very consistent. The Rangers would also save money, and hopefully get a solid reliever from trading Lucroy.
I think it has nothing to do with Nicholas and everything to do with Trevino in the minors. Nicholas isn’t much more than a decent backup but I am comfortable with Chirinos/Nicholas until Trevino is ready.
Totally agree about Nicholas as a backup until Trevino is ready (2020??)
After JD trades Lucroy for cash and a ptbnl and the way Brinson, Cordell and Ortiz are developing in the Brewers system, that trade could go down as his worst since he traded a young Adrian Gonzalez to SD for whiskey and beads.
They always said trading for a catcher in the middle of the season for a contender is tough
This guy doesn’t know these pitchers and they don’t have a routine set up.
The only way I can see a contender trade for him is if they want him to dh, but his numbers are kinda low this year compared to what they were
No brainer for Rangers to move Lucroy, Gomez, and Darvish.
J D won’t trade Lucroy for a song. You non-Ranger fans can go vulture on some other team and stop drooling over our players. Get a life.
I doubt there is many people drooling over his 79 ops plus, 0.1 WAR, and the fact that he is a rental
“get a life” – what a hypocritical insult
Fanning the flames:
Doug Fister for Robby Ray, Ian Krol, Steve Lombardozzi.
Robby Ray, Domingo Leyba for Shane Greene.
Rick Porcello for Yoenis Cespedis, Alex Wilson, Gabe Speier.
Yoenis Cespedis for Michael Fulmer, Luis Cessa.
Luis Cessa, Chad Green for Justin Wilson.
Gabe Speier, Ian Krol for Cameron Maybin.
Cameron Maybin for Victor Alcantara.
Indirectly, DD and AA turned Doug Fister and Rick Porcello into…
Michael Fulmer, Victor Alcantara, Shane Greene, Alex Wilson, Justin Wilson.
Well put together Garry…..good return considering Porcello is overrated and Fister is no good….Porcello is your basic #3 starter or #2 starter on a poor team and Fister is a straight up 5th starter or swing man…..pretty good haul considering Fulmer is a stud and we probably haven’t seen the best if him yet….
Lucroy would not be an option for the Angels. They are thrilled with Martin Maldonado, who has held his own with the bat (for a catcher), and he’s an outstanding pitch-framer. He’s also worked really well with their rag-tag group of starters.
Lucroy to Atlanta with the terms that they get an extension done with him. Sounds like another gamble the Braves would make.
I don’t believe the market for Lucroy would be very robust and the return for a few months of his current production will be minimal.