Baseball: Former Cajun Lucroy expecting big season from himself, Rangers

Stephen Hunt, Special to the Advertiser

FILE- In this July 29, 2016, file photo, Milwaukee Brewers catcher Jonathan Lucroy gets ready before a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Benny Sieu, File)(Photo: Benny Sieu, AP)

ARLINGTON, Texas — Jonathan Lucroy is in his first full season with the Texas Rangers, and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette product couldn’t be happier.

“Yeah, it’s a fun place to play. We have a great team and organization here. We definitely got a chance to do something special here if we start playing to our ability consistently,” Lucroy said. “I know that it’s a long season — anything can happen — but I’m definitely looking forward to the rest of this year.”

Lucroy, who starred for the Ragin’ Cajuns between 2005 and 2007 before Milwaukee drafted him in June 2007, came to the Rangers in a trade with the Brewers at the 2016 MLB trade deadline. The now 30-year-old catcher had an immediate impact, providing strong defense behind the plate and delivering something the Rangers have not had consistently since the days of Pudge Rodriguez, who will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame later this year, a backstop with a strong bat.

A two-time National League All-Star with Milwaukee, Lucroy developed an instant rapport with his new pitching staff. And for Rangers middle reliever Tony Barnette, who came to Arlington last season as a 32-year-old rookie after spending his entire career in Japan, such rapport arises from one thing.

“It’s been fun working with Johnny. He’s a different kind of catcher,” Barnette said. “He’s got a unique way of doing it and I like that. You see him back there, he doesn’t set up like traditional catchers do. He moves around great, he sees the ball phenomenally and he’s got a different mind and way of thinking about things that I’ve enjoyed.”

When the Rangers acquired Lucroy and reliever Jeremy Jeffress last summer for several high-level prospects, the trade was viewed as the final piece for Texas to break through in the playoffs and return to the World Series, where it had last been in 2011.

However, the Rangers, who had the best record in the American League last season and earned home-field advantage through the postseason, ran into a buzz-saw in Toronto, who beat Texas’ top two starters, Yu Darvish and Cole Hamels, resoundingly in Arlington before stunned crowds. The Blue Jays then completed their sweep of the AL Division Series with a Game 3 win at Rogers Centre, leaving Rangers fans to again ponder what might have been.

That disappointing finish was a bitter bill for Lucroy and his teammates to swallow, but he had no choice but to move on.

“The offseason — it’s a time to recover mentally and physically,” Lucroy said. “Whenever you have a tough ending to the season, which happens more times than not, it’s one of those things that you learn to deal with eventually. You got to be able to turn the page, flush it and move on.”

And one thing that helped him put that disappointment firmly in his rear-view mirror was the chance to be outdoors as much as possible while he, his wife and daughter spent the offseason in Lafayette.

“Yeah, it’s a place you can do anything you want if you’re a big outdoors guy. You can go fishing; you can go hunting. You can do a million different things outdoors if that’s what you like to, and that’s what I like to do,” Lucroy said. “I’d say that’s probably the biggest thing I like about it, that and probably the food and the people.”

Unless the Rangers offer him a contract extension at some point this season, he will be a free agent at the end of 2017. However, like most players, Lucroy doesn’t get caught up in whether he will get a new contract during the season.

Instead, he’s focused on handling the day-to-day tasks of being a top catcher and helping the Rangers remain an AL contender.

“I know we’re going to be real good and we’re going to compete at a high level,” he said. "I’m just real happy to be here"

— Stephen Hunt is a freelance writer based in Frisco, Texas.