The Texas Rangers are continuing to work for Milwaukee Brewers catcher Jonathan Lucroy.
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With the MLB Trade Deadline on Monday, teams are scouring the market for players that they can acquire. So far, the trades have been highlighted by Aroldis Chapman to the Chicago Cubs and Andrew Miller to the Cleveland Indians.
Perhaps the biggest bat on the market is Milwaukee Brewers catcher Jonathan Lucroy. He was supposed to be dealt to the Cleveland Indians on Sunday, but used his no-trade clause to veto the deal. This leaves the Brewers with little time left to hammer out a deal to send him out.
However, the Texas Rangers emerged on Sunday as a candidate for Lucroy. Jon Heyman of Todays Knuckleball is adding that the Rangers are indeed working on a trade for the 30-year-old. It’s not close, but they’re reportedly ‘very optimistic’.
rangers are working on lucroy. havent heard it's close, but very opportunistic if they land him.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) July 31, 2016
A deal for Lucroy would bolster a weak catching group for the Rangers. They dealt prized prospect Jorge Alfaro in a deal for pitcher Cole Hamels in 2015, so they are limited for replacing within. The in-house options haven’t provided much offense either, so a deal for Jonathan Lucroy would stabilize the catcher position for the remainder of 2016 and 2017.
Texas will likely need to give up a package of prospects for the Brewers’ backstop. Given the price that the Indians were about to pay, including top catching prospect Francisco Mejia, the Rangers could end up trading a fair amount of value.
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