Chris Cotillo of Masslive.com reports that the Red Sox and Jonathan Lucroy are nearing a deal. The terms are not yet known, but one presumes it’s a minor league deal with a spring training invite.
Lucroy started the 2019 season with the Angels, who released him early August. He finished the year out with the Cubs, He had hit just .242/.310/.371 over 74 games in Anaheim and was even worse -- .189/.283/.283 -- in 27 games in Chicago. Over the past three seasons he’s hit a combined .248/.315/.350 batting line over 1,263 plate appearances. He is simply no longer an everyday catcher and, frankly, he’s approaching borderline as a backup.
Right now he’s not even well-positioned to stick with Boston as a backup, who currently have Christian Vázquez and Kevin Plawecki ahead of him on the depth chart. But the season is long, injuries happen, teams want depth in camp, and veterans want to be in camp in order to showcase themselves in case the present situation doesn’t pan out. Which is to say that this arrangement works for everyone involved, at least for the the time being.
