Arlington, Texas – The Texas Rangers today announced that the club has acquired catcher Jonathan Lucroy and right-handed pitcher Jeremy Jeffress from the Milwaukee Brewers in exchange for minor league outfielder Lewis Brinson, right-handed pitcher Luis Ortiz, and a player to be named later. He was supposed to be dealt to the Cleveland Indians on Sunday, but used his no-trade clause to veto the deal.
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Although the Mets acquired Jay Bruce from the Cincinnati Reds Monday, the team is still in on trading for Milwaukee Brewer Jonathan Lucroy.
A day later, the Rangers swept in aggressively and once again dealt from their very deep well of A-list prospects, sending Ortiz and Brinson to Milwaukee.
Jonathan Lucroy got a deal he liked on Monday during an 18-swap frenzy at the trade deadline.
Brinson has spent the entire season with Double-A Frisco, batting.237 (72-304) with 11 home runs and 40 RBI in 77 games.
Jeffress has 27 saves and a 2.22 ERA for Milwaukee. Through 94 games this season with the Brewers, Lucroy is posting a solid.300 batting average, has hit 13 home runs, and driven in 50 RBIs. Also, with Lucroy’s contract containing a team option for $5 million next season, it’s a safe bet he will return to Texas on a team-friendly rate.
Texas also dealt three pitching prospects to the rebuilding Yankees for All-Star outfielder Carlos Beltran, New York’s top offensive player this season. I’m respecting their process and what the Brewers are trying to do in terms of the trade.
At least the Brewers waited until after last Saturday’s “90s Night” at Miller Park to deal the back-end bullpen duo. If Lucroy is the price of future success, loyal Brewers fans seem more than willing to take the chance to see their team arrive in the playoff race once again, and with hope, for years to come. He entered the 2016 season ranked by Baseball America as the third-best prospect in the Giants organization.
His power has been up, his performance has been up, and at 30-years-old he is showing little flaw on the field. He’s a right-handed pitcher and in 16 appearances between Class A-Advanced and Double-A, he has a 3.48 ERA, 1.23 WHIP and 62 strikeouts against only 13 walks in 67 1/3 innings.
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Teams had until 1 p.m. PDT to make trades without waivers. The crew did get home runs from Hernan Perez and Chris Carter in the loss, which snapped their four game winning streak.
