How will Jonathan Lucroy’s injury impact the Brewers and fantasy owners?
Much to the distress of Brewers fans, All-Star catcher Jonathan Lucroy will be placed on the disabled list with a broken left big toe. He suffered the injury on a fluke foul tip during the Brewers’ 6-1 loss to the Reds Monday night.
As Lucroy explained on Brewers.com, “I’ve been hit a million times on my feet. I was just talking to ‘Maldy’ about it and he said the same thing: That’s the first time I’ve ever seen a catcher break their toe. It had to be me. It’s about par for the course right now.” ‘Maldy’ is Martin Maldonado who will now become the Brewers No. 1 catcher during Lucroy’s absence. He is a career .222 hitter in just over three seasons with the Brewers, and hit eight home runs in 233 at-bats in 2012, so he does have some power.
The Brewers are off to a horrendous start. Coming off a 2014 season where they spent the majority of their time in first place, they now sit at the bottom of the league at 2-11. Four of their eight primary hitters have lost time to injury. In addition to Lucroy’s injury, the Brewers are also missing Carlos Gomez to a hamstring injury and second baseman Scooter Gennett, who was hurt in a shower accident. Ryan Braun missed a couple games with a rib-cage strain.
So, what do the Brewers lose with Lucroy? Even though he was off to a slow start this season, batting just .156, Lucroy was one of the players counted on to help pull the team out of its current slump. Last season Lucroy batted .301 with 13 home runs and an OPS of .837 in 153 games played. And as the pitching staff continues to struggle, the Brewers have lost a valuable leader behind the plate in Lucroy.
Lucroy was expected to platoon a bit at first base with Adam Lind this season. Lind is off to a good start, batting .302 in 12 games, so he should continue to hold down that position for now. However, if you own Lind in fantasy, keep an eye on what the team does with Lucroy once he comes off of DL. They may put Lucroy on first as he finishes his recovery, because squatting behind the plate puts a lot of pressure on a toe injury.
Overall, the Brewers are in a bad spot, and other teams will capitalize on the opportunity. Fantasy players who own pitchers facing the depleted Brewers’ bullpen should take advantage of this. As for the Brewers, the looming question remains: Can they turn things around quickly with their active players, or could they could be out of the playoff race by the time the NFL Draft rolls around?
Rob Klein is a correspondent at FantasyPros. To read more from Rob, check out his archive and follow him @RobK37.
