While Jonathan Lucroy is hitting home runs and generally being one of the best hitting catchers in Baseball, the Milwaukee Brewers keep negotiating trade offers for him, the latest and hottest one being from the New York Mets, offering Travis d’Arnaud for him.
d’Arnaud, a catcher as well, arrived in New York from the Toronto Blue Jays, part of the R.A. Dickey trade in December 2012. However, it seems the Brewers want more than just d’Arnaud for Lucroy, which makes sense, and it means the Mets need to fork over more talent, preferably young and controllable talent, in order to land Lucroy. They might also be interested in some bullpen options the Brewers have, mostly Jeremy Jeffress and Will Smith.
Can the Mets make a package attractive enough? That’s not certain. They like d’Arnaud as well as a catcher for the new few years, but his injury problems make him a risk. They have players like Dominic Smith, Amed Rosario, Gavin Cecchini and Brandon Nimmo with a lot of teams interested in putting their hands on them, but overall, their farm system’s depth is considered to be lacking, hence they might not be too pleased to give up one of these players, even if it means landing Lucroy.
Lucroy, 30, is having a great year, hitting 13 home runs through 90 games, showing no post-injury signs from last season. He’s batting .301 with a .853 OPS, good enough to make it into the All-Stat game for the second time in his career. His salary might be the best part of the deal, listed under a $5.25 million team option next season, which is hard to believe anyone will turn down. d’Arnaud is controllable through the 2019 season, eligible for arbitration at the end of this season.
When d’Arnaud has been healthy, he plays well, but since joining the Mets and his MLB career began (2013), he’s had plenty of injuries limiting him, most recently a rotator cuff strain putting him on the DL. In 2016, he’s played in 34 games, batting .246 with a .641 OPS, hitting a couple of home runs. His defense is good, but the Mets have been considering moving him to first base, where he’s less likely to be injured.