Lucroy to the Angels - One Year, $3.35m

[JDBrewCrew]

Jeff Passan

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@JeffPassan

35m35 minutes ago

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Catcher Jonathan Lucroy and the Los Angeles Angels are in agreement on a one-year, $3.35 million deal, league sources tell Yahoo Sports. Lucroy took his physical today and deal should be official soon. He can make more than $4 million total with performance bonuses.

[Eye Black]

One less potential suitor for Yasmani Grandal.

 

Edit: I should have prefaced with “probably”. Lucroy’s addition may not completely remove the Angels from the mix.

[jerichoholicninja]

From one of the best catchers in the league to bouncing around on low dollar one year deals in only a couple years.

[adambr2]

From one of the best catchers in the league to bouncing around on low dollar one year deals in only a couple years.

 

It's pretty amazing that Lucroy has never made more than $6.5M in one season. I always advocate for young players taking the security of a lower guarantee, but Lucroy is the poster child for not doing that. His market timing has always been about as bad as it can be.

[clancyphile]

I'd feel better with Lucroy/Pina than Pina/Kratz or Pina/Nottingham...

 

Now, I worry we gut the farm for Realmuto, or pay through the nose for Grandal...

[ebmackenzie]

LAA catching last year was weird and I've long thought there was a buy-low opportunity here for Stearns...

 

LAA had a better catcher WAA than the Brewers last year with 6 catchers getting plate appearances. They have 9 catchers with AA experience or better between the ages of 22-30, but none of them are top 30 prospects.

[adambr2]

At this point I'm expecting another season of some underwhelming combination of Pina/Kratz/Nottingham.

 

Of the three, I hope that Nottingham wins the job, but given where we are as a franchise I highly doubt that we are going to trust a highly inexperienced catcher with 100+ games behind the plate.

 

I doubt we are going to pay for either the prospect price of Realmuto or the financial price of Grandal.

[SRB]

Pina is better than Lucroy, so not too bothered about this.

 

I'm not very excited about Kratz as a backup, but I think Pina is a perfectly fine primary catcher unless we somehow land Realmuto or Grandal.

[adambr2]

Pina is better than Lucroy, so not too bothered about this.

 

I'm not very excited about Kratz as a backup, but I think Pina is a perfectly fine primary catcher unless we somehow land Realmuto or Grandal.

 

Based on their usage last season I'm not sure we have any reason to think Pina is our primary catcher and Kratz our backup.

[TURBO]

Pina is better than Lucroy, so not too bothered about this.

 

I'm not very excited about Kratz as a backup, but I think Pina is a perfectly fine primary catcher unless we somehow land Realmuto or Grandal.

 

Based on their usage last season I'm not sure we have any reason to think Pina is our primary catcher and Kratz our backup.

 

Or, the other way around...

[Lathund]

Pina is better than Lucroy, so not too bothered about this.

 

I'm not very excited about Kratz as a backup, but I think Pina is a perfectly fine primary catcher unless we somehow land Realmuto or Grandal.

 

Based on their usage last season I'm not sure we have any reason to think Pina is our primary catcher and Kratz our backup.

 

Wasn't it all pretty strictly based on who the pitcher was? Kratz caught Miley and Chacin, and thus ended up starting a lot more games. Of course it could be that the club paired them up knowing they'd see far more use and wanted that, or it could simply be that they had the best chemistry or whatever. Or perhaps it was a matter of Piña being a bit banged up. Either way, I think we'll see Piña catch a lot more innings than Kratz even if both are on the roster the whole year.

[reillymcshane]

Amazing to see Lucroy in this position. If he had hit FA after 2016 (when he hit .292 with 24 HR), he could have gotten $15M or more for 3-5 years. Instead he's settling for one year contracts for 1/3 or less of that.

 

I'm not shocked at the decline. It happens to catchers. I'm just a bit shocked at how quick his game deteriorated. At 32, he's unlikely to get any better. I imagine he'll be able to play for at least a few more years, but his bad 2017 and 2018 cost him tens of millions.