Late Saturday night, the Indians and Brewers agreed to a trade that would send Lucroy to Cleveland in exchange for catcher Francisco Mejia, shortstop Yu-Cheng Chang, outfielder Greg Allen and right-handed pitcher Shawn Armstrong. Texas parted with outfielder Lewis Brinson, a 22-year-old former first round pick (29th overall in 2012), who is considered the 16th-best prospect in baseball this season; and 20-year-old right-hander Luis Ortiz, the Rangers’ first-round choice (20th overall) in 2014.
Advertisement
Lucroy’s acquisition came shortly after the Rangers sent three prospects to the New York Yankees for designated hitter Carlos Beltran.
For the second year in a row, the Texas Rangers added a top player who had already nixed a deadline deal to another team.
Lucroy took to Twitter to thank the Brewers faithful, tweeting: “Thank you Brewers fans for everything!” Lucroy has hit.299/.359/.482 this year with 13 home runs and 50 RBI. In 76 games as AA this season, Brinson has hit.233/.277/.430 with 11 home runs and 10 steals and owns a.275/.343/.486 slash with 72 home runs and 81 steals across five minor league seasons. Time spent on the disabled list has been d’Arnaud’s biggest problem in his major league career, though he he’s hit just.239/.290/.321 this year and spent plenty of time on the DL again. The 30-year-old Lucroy, who’s under contract for $5.25 million in 2017, is batting.
The Rangers have used four different starting catchers this season, with Bobby Wilson making a team-high 38 starts. Luckily, the Texas Rangers needed a catching upgrade as they’ve had to piece the position together with Robinson Chirinos missing a lot of time with injuries.
12 hours after being rejected, Indians did finish a successful deal Sunday morning when New York Yankees shipped Andrew Miller to them. The righty was drafted fourth overall in last year’s draft and was the preason No. 69, 36, and 59 ranked prospect according to, respectively, Baseball America, MLB.com, and Baseball Prospectus. 237 with 11 HR and 40 RBI with Double-A Frisco this season.
Bickford this season went a combined 5-6 with a 2.71 ERA in 17 starts between Class-A Augusta (11gs, 3-4, 2.70era) and Class-A San Jose (6gs, 2-2, 2.73era). Texas is now alone in first place in the AL West, holding a 6 game lead over the Houston Astros.
General manager David Stearns announced the move Monday after the deadline passed.
Advertisement
Milwaukee also is parting ways with Jeffress, who had gone 2-2 with a 2.22 ERA and 27 saves in 28 chances. While you can argue that the Mets catchers have a better CERA (3.35 to Lucroy’s 4.42) that speaks more to the Brewers subpar pitching staff than it does to Lucroy’s ability to call a good game.
