This story was excerpted from Adam McCalvy’s Brewers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
Jonathan Lucroy was thrown directly into the deep end when he made it to the Major Leagues. Now he’s hoping to help the next generation of Brewers catchers have a smoother entry.
Lucroy arrived at Spring Training on Sunday and will spend several weeks with players on both the Minor League and Major League sides. He knows those catchers are in good hands with assistant director of player development Charlie Greene and other instructors, so Lucroy will focus instead on issues like leadership and assertiveness.
“My first couple of years, I struggled with calling games,” Lucroy said. “I was inexperienced. I didn’t have anyone to mentor me and teach me. I wondered whether the Brewers would be interested in something like this, so I talked to [principal owner] Mark [Attanasio], and he was. Hopefully, I can be a cheat sheet for the young guys.”
What exactly will be his role?
“It’s a player mentor role,” Lucroy said. "I’m not going to mess with any physical stuff; that’s the coaches’ jobs. But I’m hoping to help with leadership stuff, the intangible qualities. Especially with the catchers.
“I’m very biased. I think catchers are the most important players on the field. They have to be servants of the pitchers. That’s the only position on the field where you touch 13 other players on a daily basis, where you can develop relationships and communicate with them and you can actually make them better. If they trust you, they can be better, the team can be better and you can win more.”
Building that trust is a tricky thing, especially for a very young player. Lucroy had played only 21 games above the Double-A level when the Brewers summoned him to the Majors amid a spate of injuries to their catchers. His learning curve with regard to getting on the same page with Milwaukee’s veteran pitchers happened in a very public manner.
Eventually, Lucroy figured it out and built a reputation as one of the best receivers in the game at a time when pitch framing was becoming a measurable, valuable tool. He started the 2014 All-Star Game and finished fourth in National League MVP Award balloting. He made another All-Star team in '16, the year he was traded to Texas. It was a success story for the Brewers, since Lucroy was a homegrown talent drafted in the third round in '07.
But while the Brewers have had great success helping catchers develop defensively since then, they haven’t drafted and developed a star of their own since Lucroy. He’s hoping to help change that some day.
Could coaching become a full-time gig?
“Maybe one day,” Lucroy said. “Right now, I’m busy with some business things not related to baseball, and my priority is my family. My daughter is 12, my son is 4, and I want to prioritize them after being gone so long playing the game. I feel like this is a pretty good role for me to come in, help guys out and be a phone call away whenever they need me. I don’t want them to step on the same landmines that I did.
“If I can do that, then they can be more successful, and the Brewers can win more."