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The Brewers are finally going to have their All Star catcher back.
Jonathan Lucroy has missed over a month since being placed on the disabled list April 20 due to a fractured toe. However, the Brewers are planning on having him rejoin the team on Monday, reports Andrew Gruman.
The Brewers will send him to Brevard County first, where he will play in a four-game rehab stint to shake off any rust that has accumulated over the past five weeks. But batting anything going horribly, horribly wrong (it is the 2015 Brewers season, after all), Lucroy should be back in the lineup for the June 1 series opener against the Cardinals.
That's great news for Milwaukee. With Martin Maldonado and Juan Centeno taking over backstop duties, the Brewers have gotten just a .145/.217/.193 batting line from their catcher in May. That's good for an MLB-worst .187 wOBA at the position. Which, you know, isn't great.
Lucroy, meanwhile, is arguably the best player on the Brewers after an All Star 2014 campaign that saw him lead the league with 53 doubles and finish 4th in NL MVP voting while batting .301/.373/.465. In a handful of games before his injury this year, he had been off to a slow start. But that shouldn't last and Lucroy should return to form sooner than later to help out a struggling Brewers' offense.
Even if the Brewers have a tough road to get anywhere close to sniffing contention, having Lucroy back at least helps maintain his trade value. Teams have already been sniffing around to see what it would take to acquire him, though the Brewers don't seem inclined to make a deal just yet with him signed through 2017 if they pick up his option.
Once an official roster move is made, it seems certain that Juan Centeno will be sent back to Triple-A Colorado Springs.