The Rockies’ search for catching help could lead them to a familiar face, as Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe writes that “Jonathan Lucroy could return to the Rockies for a second stint.” Lucroy first played for Colorado in 2017, suiting up for 46 games in the purple pinstripes after a deadline trade from the Rangers. The veteran backstop had a big hand in the Rockies’ run to the NL wild card game that season, batting .310/.429/.437 over 175 plate appearances with the club.
Lucroy’s time in Colorado also represents the last consistently good stretch of his career, as he has otherwise struggled badly over the last three seasons. Over 782 PA with the Athletics, Angels, and Cubs in 2018-19, Lucroy has hit only .237/.297/.338 with 12 home runs. Prior to the Rockies trade, Lucroy also batted .242/.297/.338 in his first 306 PA of the 2017 season.
It has been a stark dropoff both offensively and defensively for a player who was arguably the game’s best catcher in his 2012-16 heyday with the Brewers and Rangers. As per Baseball Prospectus, Lucroy’s blocking and framing numbers have been far below average over the last three seasons. On the more intangible front, Lucroy was heavily praised for his game-calling ability and work in managing Oakland’s makeshift pitching staff in 2018, as the A’s overcame a barrage of rotation injuries to win a slot in the AL wild card game.
This type of veteran stability would be a boost to a Rockies’ catching situation that was a big problem area in 2019. Tony Wolters has yet to show anything at the plate (.653 OPS) over 1123 career plate appearances, and Wolters’ framing numbers dropped precipitously from near-elite level in 2018 to below average in 2019. Drew Butera and Elias Diaz has have already been added as veteran backup options, and Lucroy would bring more of a track record than either of that pairing, though he has shown little of his old form in recent years. The pickings are slim on the free agent catching market by this point in the offseason, so Colorado could opt to just add another relatively inexpensive option in Lucroy or perhaps seek out a trade.
Oh no you don’t. Cubbies Front Office! ATTACK!
Why? He did absolutely nothing with the Cubs.
What if the Cubs trade Contreras?
How did he forget how to hit?
We ruined him.
Your team ruins everyone.
He hit pretty well for the first two months on the Angels.He struggled in June and seemed to be looking better at the plate in July but then the whole Marisnick thing happened. He came back for 1 game and got DFA’d.
Besides 5 games in July, he had one good offensive month and was bad for the rest.
Lucroy was never the same after Marisnick ran him over Hope he can get past it And put it behind him
No..he was never the same after 2017. He has been consistently not very good since then
Since he blocked a trade to the Indians. He Got salty.
He blocked a trade to the Indians because they were not going to guarantee him that he would’ve started over Gomes in 2017.
He hits like German, weak and on females
That comment was not okay in any sense. Joking about domestic violence while also implicating that Lucroy is an abuser? Just stop. It’s not clever or funny at all.
Good thing the speech police are here, that was close!
“B-b-b-but …freedom of speech!” The favored rhetorical move of people who don’t have an argument.
He is an abuser of being bad at baseball
And being a straight male, I’m assured he has hit on females before not in the criminal sense
And as a pitcher in mlb he’s a weak hitter
I remember the week before the rangers traded him, he made some remarks saying stuff like (paraphrasing) “If the Rangers don’t want me anymore so be it, but I don’t want to play for a team that doesn’t appreciate me being there.” Remember this was after Lucroy had a .635 ops with the rangers in 77 games. He got traded to Colorado mid season, so those 77 games was the majority of the playing time in the first half. But he was mad because the week before the trade, the rangers were experimenting with Chirinos as a full time replacement. This all leading back to his remarks about playing for a team that “doesn’t want him”.
Im sorry, but if you are having a bad season, don’t expect to be a full time player just because you’ve been good in the past. Glad we moved on.
If I’m being honest, I wouldn’t hate it. I get it was a few years ago, but he did a good job with us then and in 2019 it seemed like a lot of Cubs pitchers loved throwing to him.
Ok. At this point I’m sure he’s just hoping for a MLB invite.
Finally, the Rockies are connected with an actual MLB player (no, Drew Butera doesn’t count) of that doesn’t involve them trading him away. And it only took two and a half months.
Did this author really say Lucroy was arguably “the games best catcher” from 2012-2016? Did Buster Posey not exist?
Lol yeah I can think of 5 better than him during that time, Molina, Posey, Wieters, Perez, and Martin.
Exactly…but people could still argue for Lucroy!
ARGUABLY the best catcher
He wasn’t the best for that big of a range. He was the best in 2014. He had a career year with 6.6 WAR and a top 5 MVP finish. But the rest of the time, he was just an average to above average starting catcher. He had a good run, but in no way was he the best catcher for a 5 year stretch.
I know he’s always been a backup, but I’m still impressed that Drew Butera has been able to have a 10 year MLB career with a cumulative WAR of -3.2
That’s Yuniesky-esque
Same reason why Jeff Mathis has somehow managed to have a 15 year career, despite the fact that they’re both awful hitters, elite defense.
His dad had a 9 year career as a backup catcher with a career WAR of -1.2.
I want to give the Rockies the benefit of the doubt, but this has Ianetta written all over it. Past prime catcher hoping to recapture productivity only for it to come back to bite them. They wouldn’t be looking for a RH platoon for Wolters if they hadn’t dropped Murphy due to the firm Ianetta commitment last year.
Just get it right already; publicly state Arenado is staying, work on locking up Story and either sell Gray high for controllable pitching (looking at your Kyle Wright) or try to out-slug your opposition by upgrading 1B by working on a deal for Josh Bell.
Wright still has front line potential and better health from Marquez and better production from Freeland still can form a decent top end of the rotation while avoiding a FA loss in Gray AND creating more money available for a Story extension.
If that possibility does not come to fruition, then look in to a package for Bell centered on near or first year arb guys (Hampson, McMahon, Hoffman) packaged with some higher level prospect (Rolison, Welker, Lavigne, Toglia) and a lottery ticket (Pint) while including D. Murphy to offset initial cost and patch PIT 1B.
The latter doesn’t infer it as a “done deal” but if you want to ensure Arenado doesn’t test the market at opt out you need to at least try to improve the team outside of a philosophy of “play better”. You may plan for better performance with some current players, but that won’t get this squad back to 90+ wins with a continually improving NL and neither will simply signing Jonathan Lucroy and calling it an offseason.
I agree with a couple of points here.
First, publicly stating Arenado is staying would go a long way with fans. Right now, if he is traded while still healthy and performing at a high level right after signing a long term extension, I will probably walk away from the team. I have been a casual fan since they started in 1993 and a hardcore fan since 2011, but I am not going to sit back and let the owners pull off a bait and switch like the Marlins did.
Second, first base really needs to be a long term priority for this team. I know people think that first base is not that important, but that position has been vitally important to this team for years. For the first 20 years of the franchise, there were only two 1B, Andres Galarraga and Todd Helton. Since 2013, the Rockies have just patched the position with mostly past their prime vets (Morneau, Desmond, Reynolds, Murphy) or a rookie changing positions (McMahon). Trading for a Josh Bell would be a boon. I would even be okay with giving up Brendan Rodgers in a deal for Bell.
But one big thing I disagree with is that this team is not capable of 90+ wins. This is basically the same team that made the playoffs 2 years in a row. Everyone wants to act as if last year was the beginning of the end, but 2019 could easily be written off as a bunch of injuries and bad luck. From May until the ASG, the Rockies were a very good team. The horrible start and the injuries at the end of the year doomed them.
Like this post. Nice contrast to the usual “X team stinks and needs to rebuild because they did not make the playoffs last year” nonsense that you see on here usually.
Solid post from a seemingly detailed fan.
I absolutely agree that the Rockies are a better team than everyone thinks and everyone seems to quickly forget the recent playoff seasons, that doesn’t mean they aren’t in need of improving.
My bigger point is that the NL has gotten much better around them and they have stayed stagnant. The current squad is certainly more than capable of being over .500, but I do think they need to be pushed to be more than an 85 win team because the league doesn’t have many roll over opponents the way it did in 17/18.
I agree with you that the Rockies have the ability to be solid this year and that they have not done much of anything to upgrade the team.
I suspect they are going into 2020 with the idea of seeing what they actually have in several of their young players and then using that knowledge to make moves in 2021.
In 2021 they have a lot of big contracts that they can shed for next to nothing. Freeing up roughly $35 million from from the bullpen and getting rid of Murphy’s contract should allow them to make some moves to go all in for 2021. Which would make sense since that is the last guaranteed year of Nolan.
There may not be many roll over opponents on paper, but they will show themselves as the season goes along. Pirates and Marlins on paper and that’s it. No one went into 2019 thinking the Rockies were that type of team, but they turned into one. The Padres haven’t proven anything on the field yet. The Giants could easily be a very bad team. The Mets are almost always a mess of some kind. Any other team could fall off with a string of injuries.
It’s not an automatic walk through for the Rockies by any means and will take some luck, but that’s true of just about any team that doesn’t have the Dodgers or Yankees payroll. Whether it’s luck of remaining injury free or luck of prospects panning out at the same time or luck of playing teams at the right time of the year or luck of having division rivals have bad luck.
I am not one of those fans that says my team has to win every year. All I ever ask of a team I am rooting for is that they appear to be trying to win EVERY YEAR. I will not accept a team that tanks before April. I don’t mind a sell off in July when you are 25 games out, that makes logical sense. But right now everyone is tied for first place, so they should act like it.
I am really surprised the Pirates have not pushed hard for him. They need a guy like him to be a leader and hope he can perform so they can flip him at the deadline.
LuCroy or Martin
Aww.
“Framing” has to be the most ridiculous, subjective “stat” ever invented. Catchers are responsible for lousy umpiring? Jeesh.
Shake that fist at the cloud!
Go Cubs Go
Impressive package being offered by St. Louis for Arenado., especially since it appears St. Louis will take on almost all, if not all, of his contract.
Cardinals ought to be wary, though. No doubt Arenado is a star, but a lot of his numbers come from playing 81 games at Coors. Like Goldschmidt did last year after leaving the friendly hitting environment in Arizona, Arenado’s numbers are gonna suffer in that thick summertime St. Louis air.
Still, if the Cardinals pull off that trade, they would have some infield (Arenado, DeJong, Wong and Goldie). Only one or two teams could match that foursome for overall offense and defense..
Boy, OAK/STL would be fun to watch…
Goldschmidt’s career home/away splits are pretty much identical in his career. He actually has a higher average, more home runs, and a higher SLG% in his career on the road compared to his home games. He could have just had a down year.
It always amazes me how awful most Catchers are in modern baseball. I understand why they are slow on the bases. I don’t understand why they can’t hit. They see more pitches closely than any other player. You would think they could recognize the pitch coming easier than an OF does.
About time someone said it.
The best hitters among them get moved to a different position so that they get more AB’s and have longer careers
Modern baseball? Have you really looked at stats of catchers from the past? The stats of most catchers today are far better than the hitting stats of most catchers in the 20th century. Johnny Bench, Yogi Berra, and even Mike Piazza would probably not even be in the HOF if they were not catchers with the same stats. In the early 20th century, a lot of catchers were worse hitters than pitchers. Catchers before Johnny Bench and shortstops before Cal Ripken were rarely thought of as hitters. And if they did hit, it was usually just a bonus.