A day after exercising his no-trade clause to veto a potential deal to Cleveland, the Brewers dealt Catcher Jonathan Lucroy and closer Jeremy Jeffress to Texas for two prospects and a player to be named later. They did trade a number of young players, including centerfielder Lewis Brinson and pitcher Louis Ortiz, but Nomar Mazara and Gallo will remain in Texas.
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In the meantime, the Rangers bolstered their lineup with Carlos Beltran, who is having a monster year, batting.304/.344/.546 with 22 home runs and 64 runs batted in, making the addition of Lucroy an even sweeter deal for the forerunners of the AL West. They got All-Star left-hander Cole Hamels last season after the pitcher voided a proposed trade that would have sent him from Philadelphia to Houston. 299 (101-for-338) with 13 HR and 50 RBI in 95 games this season.
He closed a $4 million contract under Milwaukee this year and will have an additional $1.25 million under option next year.
On his Twitter account after Monday’s deal to the Rangers, Lucroy wrote, “let’s take this bad boy to the ‘ship!”
“We know this is part of the process”, Stearns said.
The Brewers were put in a spot when they had a deal in place to deal Lucroy to the Indians and Lucroy nixed the deal.
To make room on the 40 man roster for Lucroy and Jeffress, the Rangers have designated catcher Bryan Holaday, now on the disabled list, and catcher Bobby Wilson for assignment. He likely will be in a setup role for the Rangers behind Sam Dyson.
On Monday, Lucroy sounded happy to be dealt to Texas, where he’ll be on a contending team and closer to his home of Lafayette, La. With the Astros losing three straight, the Rangers have pushed their division lead to six games, the biggest gap since the All-Star break after leading by as many as 10 games in late June.
Brinson is a 6-foot-3 centre fielder who was the 29th overall pick in the 2012 amateur draft. He’s struggled a bit this year in Double-A Frisco, logging a 4.08 ERA and 1.36 walks plus hits per innings pitched (WHIP), but has still managed to strike out 34 batters in 39.2 innings pitched, while also bringing his walks-per-nine-innings rate down to a career low of 1.6. The two-time All-Star (2014 and 2016) was selected by Milwaukee in the third round of the 2007 First-Year Player Draft. Between a combination of A+ and Double-A this season, Ortiz has a 3.48 ERA and 8.3 K/9 ratio.
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Milwaukee was 15 1/2 games behind the Chicago Cubs in the NL Central before Monday night’s game at San Diego. Jeffress, who has 27 saves this season, can’t be a free agent until 2020.
