Brewer News: Milwaukee agrees to five-year contract with Lucroy

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MILWAUKEE - The Milwaukee Brewers have agreed to a five-year contract extension with catcher Jonathan Lucroy. Media reports say the deal is worth $11-million-dollars. And it would buy out the years in which Lucroy would have been eligible for salary arbitration, which could have started as early as next winter.

General manager Doug Melvin said he could not confirm Lucroy’s new contract before it’s signed and made official. The 25-year-old has been the Brewers’ Number-One catcher for almost two full seasons. This spring, he’s batting a solid .469 with 15 hits in 32 at-bats including a homer and six RBI’s. Manager Ron Roenicke says both Lucroy and his teammates are more confident in what the catcher’s doing. And the skipper says Lucroy will continue to grow. Meanwhile, the Brewers are also said to be working on contract extensions for starter Zack Greinke and closer John Axford. Melvin and Roenicke are also in the final years of their deals, but owner Mark Attanasio says both are expected to get extensions as well.

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Norichika Aoki hit a run-scoring triple in the top of the ninth inning yesterday, to give the Brewers a 6-5 exhibition win over Cleveland. Ryan Braun went 1-for-4 with an single. And he had a pair of RBI’s which doubled his previous number from this spring. Braun is now hitting just .120. And he got off to a very slow start after his tumultuous off-season in which he won an appeal of a positive drug test which was made public soon after he won the National League MVP award. Brewers’ manager Ron Roenicke says he’s not worried about Braun, and noted that he’s only had 25 at-bats this spring. Roenicke says Braun is walking a lot now, which means he’s doing a job of taking close pitches – and he pounded a ball at the shortstop yesterday. In Roenicke’s words, “I like what I’ve seen.” Brewers’ starter Chris Narveson gave up four runs in six-and-a-third innings, including a two-run homer to Carlos Santana. Shortstop Alex Gonzalez missed his second straight game for Milwaukee with a bruised right heel. The Brewers are 10-12-2 in Cactus League play, and they’ll face Kansas City this afternoon.

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Yovani Gallardo will start for the Milwaukee Brewers this afternoon, when they play Kansas City in a Cactus League exhibition in Arizona. Gallardo is 1-1 this spring with a two-point-seven-seven ERA. The Royals will start left-hander Bruce Chen. He’s 0-1 with a bloated ERA of 15. Gallardo’s spring schedule still puts him in line to be the Opening Day starter a week from Friday against Saint Louis at Miller Park. Manager Ron Roenicke has not announced his season-opening rotation yet – but he expects to do so shortly. Gallardo is expected to make his third straight Opening Day start. Roenicke calls Gallardo a “productive workhorse” and a huge cog in the Milwaukee rotation. Zack Greinke is expected to be the Game-Two starter, followed by Randy Wolf, Shaun Marcum, and Chris Narveson. Roenicke says the pitchers pretty much know what the order is – and he wants to make sure everyone’s healthy before he officially announces it. Marcum is coming off an inflamed throwing shoulder, and he was okay yesterday after his start on Sunday. He’s expected to start in a Cactus League game this Friday against the Dodgers – or he could start the year on the disabled list.

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The Brewers now have 36 players on their active roster, after they sent pitchers Josh Butler and Daniel Meadows to the minors yesterday. Both were non-roster invitees to Spring Training, and they’re expected to start the season at Triple-“A” Nashville. Butler is a starter, and Meadows is a reliever. The Brewers have 16 pitchers in their Major League camp at the moment, along with four catchers, seven outfielders, and nine infielders. They’ll have to cut 11 more players to get the Opening Day roster down to its limit of 25.

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