Brewers trade rumors: Milwaukee taking offers for Jonathan Lucroy

The Brewers have been quietly hording Jonathan Lucroy, waiting for the right moment to strike. With the days passing ever so quickly, teams looking to improve at catcher will have few other places to look, if a 30-year-old, .300-hitting, two-time All-Star is what they’re seeking. And as Ken Rosenthal reported, Milwaukee has thrown up the shutters on the Lucroy market.

Yes, the Mets apparently made an offer, despite hinting earlier this season that they wanted to see how things panned out with their current catcher, Travis d’Arnaud. At the moment, he’s hitting .246 with a .633 OPS. He’s also caught eight of 41 base stealers this season. By comparison, Lucroy has nailed 32 out of 80, the highest number of thieves caught stealing among all the catchers in baseball.

New York has worked hard to play off their interest in Lucroy this July, but the evidence is there. Not only do we know the teams have talked, but Brewers scouts have been attending games among the Mets’ minor league squads, and it’s been said that New York might even be willing to deal d’Arnaud.

Whoever gets Lucroy will undoubtedly be receiving an upgrade; however, that team will not be the Tigers, as was reported this morning.

Detroit may have pulled out of contention, but it doesn’t actually matter, because as it turns out, Lucroy’s got a no-trade list, and the Tigers are on it.

Surprise! This means that Lucroy will not be putting on the uniform of any team called the Twins, Angels, Padres, Mariners, Athletics, Nationals, Indians or Tigers unless he has a change of heart. The Indians, despite being on his no-trade list, have been rumored to be linked to Lucroy already, and have an opening at catcher. The Red Sox have also been connected to things, of course, as well as the Rangers, Astros, and—you guessed it—a mystery team.

Barring some unknown personal issues with certain regions, this list seems to be a bit out of date, with the Nationals and Indians both being included on it despite their obvious success in 2016 (It has been said that Lucroy, oddly enough, would prefer to go to a winner). And don’t forget, he’ll be under team control through 2017 for the insanely reasonable price of $5.25 million.

The Brewers stand to get a haul for their catcher and this deal, whoever it winds up involving, seems to be moving forward. Stay tuned. You never know when somebody’s just going to come out of nowhere.