Jonathan Lucroy

Did You Know?

• Lucroy kept a blog about Hawaiian ecology for the Minor League Baseball website while playing winter ball in 2007.
• He was inducted into the Milwaukee Brewers Wall of Honor on August 6, 2022.
• Lucroy was one of 14 Brewers selected for the 2013 World Baseball Classic.

Early life

Lucroy was born on June 13, 1986, in Eustis, Florida, to Steven, a greenskeeper at local golf courses, and Karen, who stayed home to care for Lucroy and his two younger brothers, David and Matthew. He grew up an Atlanta Braves fan, with Chipper Jones among his favorite players. Around age 10, he began catching in Little League at his father's request, as he was one of the few players unafraid of being hit by the ball, and he remained at the position after showing talent. At Umatilla High School, he batted .310 as a sophomore, .500 with 10 home runs as a junior, and .450 with 10 home runs as a senior, finishing with a school-record 22 career home runs. He earned 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. Umatilla High School retired his No. 6 jersey in 2011.

College career

Lucroy committed to play for the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns in November 2003, joining the team for the 2005 season. As a freshman, he split time with two senior catchers but was moved to designated hitter by April to keep his bat in the lineup. On April 18, 2005, he was named Sun Belt Conference player of the week after recording the 14th five-hit game in Louisiana–Lafayette history against New Orleans. That summer, he played for the Sanford River Rats of the Florida Collegiate Summer League, where his league-leading RBIs earned an all-star spot. As the starting catcher in 2006, his batting average dropped to .243 through March, but he finished at .333 with a team-leading 12 home runs and 58 RBI. Louisiana–Lafayette lost both the regular season and tournament titles to Troy, but Lucroy was named to the All-Sun Belt Tournament team after 11 hits, seven extra-base hits, and nine RBI in 17 tournament at bats. That summer, he helped the Winter Park Diamond Dawgs win a championship while leading the FCSL with six home runs and 29 RBI. Over two seasons of collegiate summer baseball, he batted .325 with eight home runs and 41 RBI in 60 games.

Professional career

The Milwaukee Brewers selected Lucroy in the third round, 101st overall, of the 2007 MLB draft, and he signed two days later for a $340,000 bonus. He began with the Rookie-level Helena Brewers, batting .342 with four home runs and 39 RBI in 61 games, earning Pioneer League Post-Season All-Star and Baseball America Rookie All-Star honors. After the season, he played for the North Shore Honu in Hawaii Winter Baseball, batting .299 in 23 games. In 2008, he started with Low-A West Virginia Power, batting .310 with 10 home runs and 33 RBI before a June 19 promotion to Brevard County Manatees. He hit .292 with 10 home runs and 44 RBI in 64 games there. By 2008, his throw from home to second base took 1.68 seconds, below the 1.8-second MLB standard. He made his MLB debut in 2010 after an injury to Gregg Zaun and soon became the Brewers' starting catcher. In July 2016, he and Jeremy Jeffress were traded to the Texas Rangers after Lucroy declined a trade to Cleveland. He helped Texas win the AL West title in 2016, but Robinson Chirinos surpassed him as starter in 2017, and he finished that year with the Colorado Rockies. After going unsigned in the usual free agency period, he joined the Oakland Athletics in March 2018, where his offensive struggles were offset by his work with the pitching staff. He played for the Los Angeles Angels in 2019 until a concussion and broken nose in July, then finished the season with the Chicago Cubs. He mostly missed the pandemic-shortened 2020 season with the Boston Red Sox alternate training site, and had brief stints with the Washington Nationals and Atlanta Braves.

Personal life

Lucroy's younger brother David also played professional baseball, drafted by the Brewers in the 20th round of the 2015 MLB draft after pitching at East Carolina. Another brother, Matthew, works as an emergency medical technician and firefighter. Lucroy's cousin Jeremy was a college baseball pitcher who served as his batterymate in high school and for one season at Louisiana–Lafayette. Lucroy met his wife Sarah, also a Louisiana–Lafayette alumna, while both attended the university; they have a daughter, Ellia, and a son, Easton. Though raised Christian, Lucroy fully identified with the religion after his daughter's birth in 2010. The family were close friends with former Louisiana coach Tony Robichaux until his death in 2019. After his college teammate and best friend was permanently paralyzed while serving in the Oklahoma National Guard in Afghanistan, Lucroy became an advocate for veterans' affairs, performing charity work for the Fisher House Foundation, Honor Flight, and providing scholarships to military families. In 2015, he accompanied Wisconsin Sen. Lucroy is politically conservative and supported Donald Trump's 2024 presidential campaign.