Angels sign catcher Jonathan Lucroy to one-year deal; Part with pitcher Matt Shoemaker
Catch Jonathan Lucroy will join the Los Angeles Angels on a one-year, $3.35 million deal on Friday.
Yahoo! Sports was the first to report the news.
https://twitter.com/Angels/status/1079173482687062016
The club also dealt longtime pitcher Matt Shoemaker to the Blue Jays.
https://twitter.com/MattShoe52/status/1078779275770318848
Lucroy, 32, hit .241 with four homers and 51 RBIs in 126 games for the Oakland Athletics. He's a nine-year MLB veteran and a two-time All-Star.
He led all AL catchers in runners thrown out (31) in 2018. His 213 runners caught since 2011 leads all of the majors.
Shoemaker signed a one-year deal with the Blue Jays. The right-handed pitcher dealt with forearm injury problems over the last two seasons, was 2-2 with a 4.94 earned-run average over seven trips to the mound the Angels 2018.
The 32-year-old Lucroy will join Jose Briceno and Kevan Smith as the Angels' big-league catchers. The 26-year-old Briceno made his major league debut last season for the Angels, and the club claimed Smith off waivers from the White Sox two months ago.
The Angels' top catchers last season were Gold Glove Award winner Martin Maldonado, who was traded to Houston in July, and Rene Rivera, who was claimed by Atlanta in August.
Los Angeles recently added free-agent starting pitchers Matt Harvey and Trevor Cahill to a rotation that has been battered by injury for years, but first baseman Justin Bour has been their biggest offseason position player acquisition.
-- The Associated Press contributed to this report
