Colorado Rockies: Add Lucroy to the list of free agents who weren’t smart

It was reported on Friday that former Colorado Rockies catcher Jonathan Lucroy has an agreement with the Oakland Athletics on a one-year contract but, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today, the former Rockie had a much better offer on the table a few months ago…and it was from the Rockies.

According to Bob Nightengale of USA Today on Twitter, in November, former Colorado Rockies catcher Jonathan Lucroy rejected a three-year contract for $21 million back in November.

While the money with the contract has not yet been disclosed, it has been reported that it will only be a one-year deal.

At the beginning of the offseason, MLB Trade Rumors ranked Lucroy as the 20th best free agent on the market and they also predicted that he would get a 2-year contract for $24 million.

If he really did receive a three-year deal from the Rockies in November, it would add Lucroy to the list of former Colorado Rockies who thought that they could get more on the market than they actually could. The other players on list include Greg Holland and Carlos Gonzalez.

For Holland, we reported on how he received a contract offer from the Rockies that was the same exact offer that the Rockies offered to Wade Davis (and Davis accepted it). It would have made Holland the biggest contract for a reliever in MLB history. However, as of Saturday morning, the former Rockies closer has not signed with a team yet.

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Why Oakland?

If you take Lucroy’s signing at face value, you probably wonder why in the world would he sign with them? There’s two main reasons, in my opinion.

1. They are a major league team
2. With Billy Beane running the show in Oakland, by the time July rolls around, Lucroy is going to be traded to a contending team anyways.

Final Thoughts

As with most of the free agents this offseason, it was obvious that they thought their market was much better than what it actually was. Lucroy was no exception to that. He expressed his interest in returning to the Rockies so, obviously, he (and his agency, Excel Sports Management) thought that he was worth more than he actually was.

Next: Rockies fan perspective: It is our time in the NL West

Also, back in December, when the Rockies signed Chris Iannetta, we were all a little bit puzzled on why they did that and didn’t sign Lucroy. This news makes the Iannetta signing more understandable.