Jonathan Lucroy to Oakland: 1 year, $6.5 million

The Oakland A’s and Jonathan Lucroy have agreed on a one year deal, per multiple reports, with Susan Slusser saying Lucroy will receive $6.5 million from the A’s. That’s not a bad deal for Lucroy, considering we are less than three weeks before Opening Day, the overall free agent market has been very soft, and Lucroy had a disappointing 2017 season.

Lucroy, of course, has replaced Matt Garza as the poster child for Rangers fans of the dangers of trading for short-term veterans in a playoff race. Texas sent Lewis Brinson, Luis Ortiz and Ryan Cordell to the Milwaukee Brewers in July, 2016, for Lucroy and Jeremy Jeffress. Lucroy was solid in the final two months of 2016 for Texas, but Jeffress got arrested for a DUI and ended up in rehab, and both players were awful for the Rangers in 2017.

The Rangers at least were able to move Lucroy for Pedro Gonzalez, a pretty decent center field prospect, at the deadline in 2017. Still, the Rangers future would be looking much better right now if we were penciling Brinson in as the starting center fielder in Texas for the coming season.

With Lucroy now in Oakland, Rangers fans have the opportunity to be mad about him much more often than they would have if he’d gone to another team. We shall see if he can build on the success he had once he went to Colorado last year, and re-establish himself as a frontline major league catcher.