The NL Central-leading Cubs are suddenly in an unfavorable position behind the plate, where they’ll go without injured star Willson Contreras for about a month. With the trade deadline having passed and short-lived Cubs reserve Martin Maldonado now a member of the Astros, Chicago’s lacking avenues to bolster its depth at catcher. The Angels are set to release veteran Jonathan Lucroy, though, and the Cubs have shown interest in the two-time All-Star, Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
Although Lucroy has gone through a rough couple years since his halcyon days with the Brewers and Rangers, the Cubs aren’t in position to be choosy at his spot. Victor Caratini, who has taken over for Contreras, has performed well this season and may have what it takes to hold the position down for the next few weeks. But the Cubs are without a remotely established backup for Caratini, who only has the untested Taylor Davis behind him on the team’s 40- and 25-man rosters. The 29-year-old Davis has picked up a meager 36 plate appearances at the major league level since he debuted in 2017, and he hasn’t provided much offense in the minors over the past couple seasons.
While Davis may not be the answer behind Caratini, the same could apply to Lucroy. Now 33 years old, Lucroy’s once-excellent hitting and formerly pristine pitch-framing skills have experienced severe drop-offs of late. After Lucroy struggled mightily with the Athletics in 2018, he joined the Angels over the winter on a $3.35MM guarantee in free agency. However, the Angels cut the cord on Lucroy after 268 trips to the plate and a gruesome injury he has since recovered from.
Although Lucroy’s 2019 offensive numbers (.242/.310/.371 – good for an 84 wRC+) are presentable for a catcher, he has declined into one of the game’s worst defenders behind the plate. The catcher-needy Cubs could nonetheless take a low-risk flier on Lucroy in hopes he’ll give them a better backup than Davis.
Yes!!!!! Do it Theo, tell Jed to bring in Lucroy!
Isn’t he a great framer?
He used to be..heard his metrics went really down here too…interesting how that happens
He wasn’t terrible but there were just too many wild pitches/ passed balls when he was catching.
Crappier pitchers throwing to him. the veterans in the Cubs rotation would likely be a good fit.
Don’t bet on it. It’s not the angels pitching that made him terrible behind the plate
Yeah, you read it IN THE ABOVE ARTICLE Chauncey.
Lucroy at least a veteran with experience, he just needs to fill the backup role for a month and make a spot start here and there. Cannot do any worse well because there is nobody else out there.
Kyle Schwarber
Hell to the NO.
I’m not a Cubs fan but I think bringing in Lucroy given the injury to Contreras is basically a no brainer — I mean it’ll be at the league minimum and he’s at worst a veteran catcher who can hold his own offensively and behind the plate. At best he rediscovers his swing a bit and provides a nice little boost offensively sharing time with Caratini.
84 wrc+ and bad defense BEFORE a bad injury….. how is THAT a no-brainer?
Because, Taylor Davis
I’d rather make a minor trade for Rene Rivera, honestly. He has more familiarity with the organization/pitching staff and he’s on a minor league deal, so the Cubs could trade for him. I don’t think it’d take much to acquire him either.
Perhaps you missed this, but there was this thing in MLB lasst week called the TRADE DEADLINE. So trading for Rivera is not an option.
Minor league deal… Which is why I mentioned him specifically. He works as a fit in many ways, including the fact that he can be dealt for.
You
Trade deadline passed. No waiver trades this year.
Rene Rivera is on a minor league contract with the Mets AAA team. As such, a “minor trade” can be worked out with NY for Rivera as Ryan The Riot Theriot stated in his comment.
wont work to much time in majors
I wonder the Yanks don’t take a flier on him and get rid of Romine.
Romine has been a better than average backup this year and is far better than Lucroy.
This just in-Cubs bullpen is circling the drain
Flushed down the toilet.
angels might have released him so that he could go to a contender. it wasn’t necessarily a cold move cutting him.
Should trade for Jesus Sucre from the Os
I doubt that will happen considering it’s illegal lol
Why wouldn’t the Yankees make an attempt. With Sanchez always getting hurt, Lucroy is a solid guy to have behind the plate.
Probably because they like to win baseball games. Lucroy doesn’t help do that anymore.
Romine is a more than adequate back up catcher. Why would the Yankees want LuCroy over Romine? And Higashioka has looked decent while Sanchez has been out — was raking at AAA.
I would pass on Jonathan Lucroy now. I watched a few Angels games that I felt his poor defense was mostly responsible for the loss of games. Now that he can’t hit, he’s a liability. Of course, sometimes a new environment changes a player.
I knew we should have started Chet Steadman. We always goof this one up.
What about Nick Hundley.
How about Randy Hundley?!
Karma…anyway, thanks for turning down that trade to Cleveland!