Texas Rangers are willing to trade catcher Jonathan Lucroy

The Texas Rangers could move catcher Jonathan Lucroy to help a struggling bullpen in need of reinforcements

According to this Ken Rosenthal tweet, the Texas Rangers are “open to moving Lucroy, going with Chirinos and Brett Nicholas, who currently is at AAA.” Catcher Jonathan Lucroy is a free agent at the end of this season and he and the Rangers stopped talking about a contract extension back in April. It sounds like the team is ready to move on a few months early, especially if Lucroy can bring back some talent who could help them this season.

The Rangers have almost no chance to win the AL West, being 14.5 games behind the Houston Astros, but the wild card is a possibility. They are currently just two games out of a wild card spot and have a better run-differential than three of the teams ahead of them. The FanGraphs depth charts project a large group of teams in the mix for the second wild card spot, with the Yankees holding a five game edge for the first spot:

FanGraphs depth chart projected end-of-year standings:

AL East winner: Boston Red Sox (92-70)

AL Central winner: Cleveland Indians (90-72)

AL West winner: Houston Astros (101-61)

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AL Wild card contenders:

New York Yankees (87-75)

Tampa Bay Rays (82-80)

Toronto Blue Jays (81-81)

Los Angeles Angels (81-81)

Texas Rangers (80-82)

Seattle Mariners (80-82)

Kansas City Royals (79-83)

Minnesota Twins (78-84)

Baltimore Orioles (78-84)

Detroit Tigers (77-85)

In a follow-up tweet, Rosenthall suggested the Rangers could use Lucroy to get help for their struggling bullpen. The Rangers relievers have a 4.67 ERA, 24^th in baseball, and are tied with the Tigers for the most blown saves in baseball. Their 45 percent save percentage is second-to-last in baseball, ahead of only the Philadelphia Phillies (44 percent). In a recent move, the Rangers added Jason Grilli from the Blue Jays. Grilli has a 6.97 ERA and 7.88 FIP and is projected to have a 4.56 ERA over the rest of the season. It seems like adding Grilli to the Rangers bullpen is like throwing gasoline on a bonfire.

Tim Boyle recently wrote about possible trade destinations for Lucroy. His list included the Arizona Diamondbacks, Boston Red Sox, and Cleveland Indians, although the Indians may not be too keen on acquiring Lucroy after he rejected their advances last season.

A mitigating factor in a Lucroy trade is that he’s just not hitting well this year. Through 60 games, he’s hit .263/.311/.375, good for a 79 wRC+, meaning he’s been 21 percent below average when league and ballpark effects are taken into account. It should be noted that he has been better since May 1, hitting .286/.337.410 (96 wRC+). His defense still rates well, so he’s been worth 0.6 Wins Above Replacement, but that’s well below his 4.5 WAR season in 2016. He’s projected to be worth 1.4 WAR over the rest of the season, which would make him about a 3 WAR player in the second half of the season.

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Should the Rangers trade Lucroy, Robinson Chirinos would take over as the regular starter. He’s been very good with the stick so far, hitting .231/.325/.593 (135 wRC+) in 123 plate appearances. That’s a small sample size, of course. He’s projected to have a 94 wRC+ going forward. Still, it sounds like the Rangers would feel comfortable going with a catching tandem of Chirinos and Nicholos, who would be called up from Triple-A. If they can get help for their beleaguered bullpen, look for Lucroy to be on the move.