Jonathan Lucroy

Jonathan Charles Lucroy (born June 13, 1986) is an American former professional baseball catcher.

Lucroy was born on June 13, 1986, in Eustis, Florida.

His father Steven worked as a greenskeeper for local golf courses, while his mother Karen stayed at home to take care of Lucroy and his two younger brothers, David and Matthew.

He grew up supporting the Atlanta Braves of Major League Baseball (MLB), and one of his favorite players was Chipper Jones.

Lucroy began catching around the age of 10, when he was playing Little League Baseball under a team coached by his father.

He started in the position at the request of his father, as Lucroy was one of the only players unafraid of being hit by the ball, and he stayed there after developing a talent in the position.

Lucroy was an early standout at Umatilla High School, where he batted .310 with 10 doubles as a sophomore in 2002.

He followed that performance by batting .500 with 10 home runs, nine doubles, and 35 runs batted in (RBI) as a junior, while committing only two errors behind the plate.

In November 2003, during senior year of high school, Lucroy committed to play college baseball for the Ragin' Cajuns of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, beginning with their 2005 season.

Lucroy was one of three catchers for the Cajuns during his freshman year, splitting time with seniors Adam Massiatte and Justin Morgan.

Although preference was given to the two senior catchers, Lucroy was a strong enough hitter that his college coaches did not want him to stay on the bench, and so by April, he was promoted to the team's designated hitter.

He finished his high school baseball career with a .450 batting average and 10 home runs as a senior in 2004.

In addition to holding the Umatilla record with 22 career home runs, Lucroy collected a number of honors throughout his career: he was an All-State honorable mention as a freshman, All-Area second team as a sophomore, and All-Area first team, All-State first team, and All-Central Florida second team as a junior.

On April 18, 2005, Lucroy was named the Sun Belt Conference player of the week for picking up the 14th five-hit game in Louisiana–Lafayette history, against the rival New Orleans Privateers.

Although he caught in only six games for the Cajuns, Lucroy's time as a designated hitter allowed him to bat .379 with five home runs and 48 RBI as a freshman, and he helped take the team to a 48–19 record and a Sun Belt Conference regular season championship.

After the season, Lucroy was named to both the All-Sun Belt Conference Second Team and the Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American Team.

After the regular season ended, Lucroy played collegiate summer baseball with the Sanford River Rats of the Florida Collegiate Summer League (FCSL), where his league-leading RBIs landed him a spot on the all-star team.

As the Cajuns' new starting catcher in 2006, Lucroy opened his sophomore season by kicking off a five-run comeback eighth inning for Louisiana–Lafayette with a bases-clearing double in their opening day 8–2 defeat of Louisiana–Monroe.

Although the transition to full-time catching saw Lucroy's batting average drop to .243 through the end of March, he led Louisiana–Lafayette with four home runs in that same frame.

He found his stride by the end of the season, finishing with a .333 average and a team-leading 12 home runs with 58 RBI.

Although Louisiana–Lafayette lost both the regular season and Sun Belt Conference baseball tournament championship titles to Troy University, Lucroy was named to the All-Sun Belt Tournament team after recording 11 hits, including seven extra-base hits, and nine RBI in 17 tournament at bats.

That summer, Lucroy returned to the FCSL, helping the Winter Park Diamond Dawgs to a championship title while leading the league with six home runs and 29 RBI.

Between Sanford and Winter Park, Lucroy batted .325 in two seasons of collegiate summer baseball, with eight home runs and 41 RBI in 60 games.

During his junior year at Louisiana–Lafayette, Lucroy tied his own school record with five hits in a 10–6 win over South Alabama.

Lucroy left the Cajuns after three seasons when he was taken by the Brewers in the third round of the 2007 MLB Draft.

Between 2010 and 2021, he spent 12 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) playing for the Milwaukee Brewers, Texas Rangers, Colorado Rockies, Oakland Athletics, Los Angeles Angels, Chicago Cubs, Boston Red Sox, Washington Nationals, and Atlanta Braves.

Born in Eustis, Florida, Lucroy began catching for his Little League Baseball team before attending Umatilla High School, where he set a school record with 22 career home runs.

After high school, Lucroy played college baseball for the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns, serving as the team's starting catcher beginning during his sophomore season.

In three seasons with Louisiana, Lucroy set a school record with 182 career runs batted in (RBI), 414 total bases, and 54 doubles.

He also spent two seasons playing collegiate summer baseball with the Sanford River Rats and Winter Park Diamond Dawgs of the Florida Collegiate Summer League.

Lucroy had a quick rise through the Brewers' farm system, making his major league debut in 2010 after an injury to Gregg Zaun.

He was supposed to return to the minor leagues shortly after this debut, but the severity of Zaun's injury forced the Brewers to keep Lucroy in Milwaukee for the remainder of the year, and he soon usurped George Kottaras as the Brewers' starting catcher.

With the Brewers, Lucroy was a two-time MLB All-Star, and he became the face of the franchise after Ryan Braun was implicated in the Biogenesis scandal.

In 2011, Umatilla High School retired Lucroy's No. 6 jersey.

By 2016, however, Lucroy began looking for a trade, and after an unsuccessful trade attempt with the Cleveland Indians, he and Jeremy Jeffress were sent to the Rangers that July.

While Lucroy's first season with Texas helped them capture the AL West title, and he won a gold medal at the 2017 World Baseball Classic during the offseason, Robinson Chirinos soon surpassed Lucroy as the Rangers' starting catcher in 2017, and he finished out the year with the Rockies.

After going unsigned during the usual free agency period, Lucroy joined the Athletics in March 2018, where his offensive difficulties were offset by his work with Oakland's pitching staff.

When Lucroy and Oakland could not come to contractual terms for the 2019 season, he joined the Angels instead.

Lucroy's tenure in Los Angeles was cut short by a concussion and broken nose in July, but he was able to finish the season with the Cubs, who had struggled to find a replacement for the injured Willson Contreras.

Lucroy mostly missed the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, spending time at the Red Sox alternate training site, and had brief tenures with Washington and Atlanta when both teams were in need of a veteran catching presence.