The Braves have signed catcher Jonathan Lucroy to a minor league contract, according to David O’Brien and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Lucroy will report to Triple-A Gwinnett.
The 34-year-old Lucroy had been looking for a team since the Nationals designated him for assignment April 12, though he was choosy in selecting a club. Lucroy reportedly turned down multiple minor league offers in hopes of scoring a guaranteed deal, but that was a tough sell when considering how the former star’s career has gone since his 2010-16 heyday with the Brewers and Rangers.
Lucroy spent parts of 2017-19 with five different teams – the Rangers, Rockies, Athletics, Angels and Cubs – but didn’t experience much success outside of Colorado during that span. He combined to hit .248/.315/.350 with 18 home runs and minus-0.1 fWAR across 1,263 plate appearances in those three seasons, and his once-ballyhooed pitch-framing ability eroded at the same time. As a result, he has appeared in just six games since last year (one with the Red Sox and five with the Nationals).
Lucroy will now lend some depth to a Braves team in need of it behind the plate. Starter Travis d’Arnaud underwent surgery on a torn thumb ligament earlier this month and won’t return until at least July. Likewise, Alex Jackson has been out all month with a strained hamstring. And Tyler Flowers, whom the Braves re-signed to a minors pact May 6, decided to retire Friday. Atlanta is now down to William Contreras and Jeff Mathis as its top two options at the big league level.
Damn, getting desperate now.
Braves can have Sanchez let’s make a deal
I would rather have broom with a glove duct taped on it then Sanchez.
Minor league contract. Need somebody to catch at AAA
he’s playing in AAA. is he one of the world’s 90 best catchers? probably, so it’s not a problem.
Good. So long as he’s a backup, great deal!
Taking the place of Tyler Flowers. Can’t have enough depth right now. Not a bad pick up with Lucroy.
Will this investment be Lucroytive for Atlanta?
No.
Living up to the username I see lmao 😀
Well played. Well played indeed sir.
I think that you’re a Contrerasian.
Funny, a few years ago I seem to remember that every other article was about how the Braves (pre-Anthopoulos) were lusting after Lucroy.
It only took Tyler Flowers to retire for someone to give him another chance
11th organization in 6 years. The life of the veteran backup catcher.
Hit 53 doubles in 2014 at age 28 season.
That is almost 25% of the total amount, 217, he has had in his 12 year career
Beggars aren’t choosy.
I called it
Cool bro! Can I have your autograph? We should hang out this weekend and get some hot chicks bro! They will want to hear your story about calling it! WHAT DO YOU SAY BRO?
I’m down!
What do you say bro?
You’re probably talking down to a little kid. Cool man. Internet hero at it again….
Agreed. Must feel cool, bro
You probably are too.
Decent signing I guess.
I will take Lucroy over Alex Jackson any day. Braves don’t know how Travis will respond coming back from injury nor do I think they will rush him. Once he is deemed ready Contreras needs to go to Gwinnett and play everyday so you need a backup that will at least give you something at the plate
I don’t get the a jax hate. So his bat didn’t turn out to be anything but home runs. Who cares he is great defensively and clearly meshes well with pitchers considering how well he’s done when he was getting starts. All of the pitchers have had nothing but praise and many of them are saying they aren’t nodding/calling off pitches Jackson calls. Have to look at the big picture this guy screams above average back up catcher. Once he gets a full season where ppl can see his 500 foot bombs he’ll get more love. Wish Braves fans weren’t so over reactive and fanatical all the time.
Haha, Contreras will remain the starter unless they trade for someone different.
I was going to say Lucroy doesn’t give you much at the plate anymore, but then looked at Jackson’s stats…compared to Jackson (insert SSS disclaimer here), you are 100% correct.
Alex Jackson has had a few shots at the big club and has not hit. It’s been mostly weak contact when he isn’t striking out. He didn’t hit much in the Braves minors either until 2019 when he put together some good HR numbers.
Travis d’Arnaud may come back late this year but I doubt Braves re-sign him for next year, not with Contreras showing promise and with Langeliers looking good in the minors.
I expect Contreras to get most of the starts this year unless d’Arnaud returns. Next season, I expect Contreras to be opening day starter. Backup might be Alex Jackson or one of these over-the-hill vets.
Braves will have a big decision to make in a couple years when Langeliers is ready for the bigs.
Decent pickup I suppose – hard to believe he’s only 34. Seems like forever ago he was one of the more productive backstops…
He wasn’t just one of the more productive backstops. He was arguably the best catcher in the game for a couple of years.
I wonder how much money he would have gotten in free agency if he hadn’t taken a $13 million extension in 2012. Guys like Wieters, Ramos, and Castro have approximately doubled Lucroy’s career earnings and he was a better catcher than all of them.
Over 50 doubles as a catcher one year
He fell off a cliff pretty quickly.
Bummer. I was hoping the Nats could snag him back. I’m not so sure Avila is any better but he has a previous relationship with Scherzer, and, to a lesser extent, Lester and Corbin.
Not overreacting or fanatical. You have to have the ability to make contact to hit a 500 ft home run. Have you watched the at bats? He and Pache in the 7/8 hole were clearly outmatched. Most Major leaguers are going run into one from time to time but when you can’t even make contact that’s a issue. Look what opposing managers did against them, they walked back to back hitters to get to that area of the lineup. That kid has been given every opportunity over the past 2 plus years to make and stay on the club. That he calls a good game, pitch frame, pop time stuff was brought to light and everyone jumped on that bandwagon. With Contreras and Langilers in the fold there is no room for him hence the Flo signing and disappointing retirement.
He has 42 at bats in the majors. Your overreacting. And how was he given opportunity last year? Even two years? You’ve jumped to conclusions based on literally a few weeks worth of games. He has great defense and the pitchers love him, he’ll be the back up for a long time with his skills. I don’t doubt that Langiliers or Contreras will be the starter soon, but that doesn’t change Ajax. If he was as bad as you make him to be the front office would have gotten a catcher this offseason. I get your argument but its irrational.
Another Jared Salty, Christian Bethancort story. Seattle screwed that kid up trying to make him a outfielder I admit that but Contreras beat him out in Spring Training and it wasn’t even close.
He’s light years away from being a major league hitter. Looks at third strikes in about 80% of his at bats. Routinely misses badly when he does swing. Needs to completely revamp his hitting approach, which should happen at AA, not even AAA. Didn’t the Braves draft another catcher besides Langeliers, too? Can’t remember if they traded one of their catching prospects…
@Gabe. Braves do have plenty of catchers in the minors. They have Jonathan Morales in AAA. Logan Brown (son of star pitcher Kevin Brown) is a older prospect who is mashing in A+ Rome. Plenty of talent just most are not near ready. Any Braves fan knows Langeliers is the future though along with Contreras. I like the Lucroy signing can’t hurt anything.
Salty had a few above average seasons, Jackson will be lucky to have one.
This is clearly the missing piece to our dynasty. Now we will win three consecutive titles over Chicago, New York and Houston due to this move.
I remember a few years ago I was wanting the Braves to trade the farm to get him lol. Boy was I wrong. I pride myself in being right on players more often than wrong, but I was wrong on him.
I have to give a nod to Riley. He is not a ‘natural’ at the plate which has its upside as long as a guy is willing to work at his craft, in his case hitting. Riley has the power to hit lots of HRs but he can also have poor ABs. For some time now, Riley has passed on swings for the fences in order to made consistent hard contact. Hits are coming up the middle and to both gaps. He doesn’t strike out a lot, and as a result is getting singles on some infield grounders too, not to mention his fair share of free passes.
I think more HRs will come his way but I like how he is grinding away to make himself a good ML hitter.
What is, “a lot”? Out of 165 qualified hitters, Riley is 118th, with a 25.2% k rate.
His hard hit rate is also down from 2019 and 2020. I wouldn’t be shocked if he’s unable to maintain a .386 babip.
I’m surprised that Riley ranks that low in strikeout percentage. A better description of Riley’s strikeout numbers might be that he has improved his strikeout numbers a lot at least it seems that way to me. Riley had a problem with swings and misses on sliders in the initial phase of his big league career, which he has worked to improve.
His power numbers are not impressive this season so far but he Bavg is 289 and OBP is 392. Both numbers are way above his (brief) career numbers.
Don’t know where you are getting your strikeout numbers. I checked MLB official stats for 2021, looking at SO vs ABs (doesn’t count walks HBP). I compared Riley’s SO numbers to those of several notable batters with more than 110 ABs. I find Riley’s SO percentage this year to be respectable relative to several more established batters.
Riley (Atl) 30%
Trout (Ang) 35% SO
Baez (Cubs) 40%
Hoskins (Phi) 33%
Swanson (Atl) 33%
Muncy (LA) 33%
Judge (NYY) 31%
Stanton (NYY) 31%
So Riley is striking out less than these more seasoned ML batters.
In any event, I like the way Riley is not chasing pitches the way he did when he came up to the bigs. I credit that improvement to working hard at his craft.
100% Neil! Riley has clearly worked his tail off at the plate. Heck, he should be in front of Swanson in the lineup. Key word here gents is COMPETITIVE at bats. Guys are going to strike out I get it. It’s not the 80’s or 90’s move the guy over game anymore. But when your up there and it’s like you don’t have a chance, managers are walking back to back players to get to you 7,8,9 in the lineup that says something. Speaking of Swanson this off season is full of FA shortstops. Not the Braves play to sign a big ticket guy but I haven’t even heard about long term deal for him. Just Saying.
Orlando Arcia has dominated AAA Gwinnett after Braves acquired him from Brewers. Appeared in 10 games with hits in every game and a whopping 6 HRs. If he keeps that up, Braves will probably bring him up as a bench piece and might get some action at SS.
Langeliers caught both games of a double header for AA Mississippi last night. He homered in first game. They didn’t pitch to him much in the second game, walking him 3 times. And Langeliers is the ‘defensive’ side of the young catcher tandem, Contreras being the offensive young stud at the catcher position. Braves are set at the catcher position for years. These over-the-hill vets are just filling in until the youngsters take over.
I hope this doesn’t mean the end for Mathis. He’s a national treasure.
Sounds like a Arcia for Camargo flip flop.
Jeff Mathis and Jonathan Lucroy? It’s 2012 again isn’t it?
Catchers don’t grow on trees, though. I’m not judging the Braves here.
Is Swanson a major league SS shows no range has an ok arm and is now striking out a lot. In person he looks fast but it seems he hasn’t showed any progress I don’t expect him to be back next AA got our Future SS at a steal
He should just hang it up. Maybe start a career as a coach to eventually become a manager someday. Some of the best managers in the game have been managers
Every time there’s a small signing the slathering of hyperbolic “must be desperate” or “dynasty/wolrd series here we/they come” is beyond ridiculous. If you have an open spot on the 40 man and you can potentially improve the 26th man on the roster you take a chance. Even if he hits exactly the same as A Jax (which hasn’t been much) you need one veteran catcher for a hopeful playoff run. Especially when 3/5ths of your rotation is kids. No he isn’t a game changer. Neither was Sandoval, Heredia, Culberson, Sanchez, Swarzak, Melancon, Suzuki, Flaherty, Carle, Winkler, Joyce, Hechavarria and Duvall and all those guys had parts in getting the team to pennants. And that’s not counting the big successes that were laughed at like Donaldson, Ozuna and Matzek. Point is this isn’t The Show. You get a chance to improve anywhere organizationally depth wise you do it, and not every improvement is based solely on the box score
Again, close game and the braves bring in batting practice specialist Mike Tomlin. Something fundamentally wrong with Snitker’s bullpen decision. It needs to be addressed or this is going to be a throw away season