Matthew LeCroy, A Good Player Eternally Linked To A Horrible Trade

[William Malone]

Fans often remember Matthew LeCroy as the designated hitter Minnesota chose to keep over David Ortiz. While everyone would agree that was a massive mistake, LeCroy still had some good moments in a Twins uniform.

Image courtesy of Twins Daily & Brock Beauchamp

Matt LeCroy was a first-round pick out of Clemson in 1997 who mashed his way through the minors. LeCroy hit 30 minor league homers in 1999, including ten bombs with a .936 OPS in 29 games at the Triple-A level. Baseball America ranked him as the 44th-best prospect in baseball entering the 2000 season. Other Twins on their pre-season list were Michael Cuddyer (18th), Michael Restovich (26th), B.J. Garbe (79th), and Luis Rivas (86th).

LeCroy was the Twins starting catcher on Opening Day in 2000. He hit a double in his first big league plate appearance off veteran righty Steve Trachsel but then fell into a slump. Minnesota sent him back to the minors in mid-June, and he wasn’t called up again until the rosters expanded in September. The emergence of A.J. Pierzynski kept LeCroy in the minors for most of 2001, and his big league action that season was limited to just 15 games.

The Twins finally found a regular role for LeCroy in 2002, as he began platooning at DH with David Ortiz. It worked pretty well. Ortiz had a .919 OPS against right-handed pitching that season, and LeCroy had an .869 OPS against lefties. They each had a sub-.650 OPS against the opposite side. This mixing and matching kept working in the playoffs, too. LeCroy hit .417 in the 2002 postseason. Ortiz mostly struggled against a dominant Oakland pitching core, but he did go 5-for-16 (.313) in the ALCS against Anaheim.

Everyone knows what happened after that. It was a mistake, a horrible one. Nothing you can say could even begin to justify how badly the Twins messed up by releasing David Ortiz. But it doesn’t change the fact that LeCroy was pretty good in 2003. He hit .287 with 17 home runs and 64 RBI in 104 games. It’s not Big Papi, but it’s respectable. LeCroy also started to hit right-handed pitching, posting an OPS over .800 against pitchers of both handedness in 2003.

And then, in 2004, LeCroy unleashed one of the most magical pinch-hitting seasons of all time. His four pinch-hit home runs that season are tied for the American League record since 1973, when the designated hitter was first adopted. One of those pinch-hit dingers was a ninth-inning grand slam with the Twins down three runs. It’s one of just 49 ninth-inning grand slams with the hitter’s team trailing by three in major league history. Only 15 of those were hit by pinch hitters.

2005 was another decent season. LeCroy hit .260 with 17 home runs and a .798 OPS in 101 games. After the season, the Twins decided to part ways with LeCroy, and he signed with the Nationals. He played just 39 games with Washington before being designated for assignment.

An infamous moment from his brief Nationals tenure came during a game on May 25, 2006. LeCroy, who had bone spurs in his knees and was doing anything he could to stay on the field, was pulled by manager Frank Robinson in the middle of an inning because his defense was so bad. Robinson was very emotional after the game, knowing how embarrassing it can be for a player to get pulled in the middle of an inning. He appreciated LeCroy’s effort to get himself out on the field with his knee injuries, but he also felt like he couldn’t let it go on any longer.

Believing he was done as a player but respecting his dedication to the game, Washington offered LeCroy a coaching role after he was designated for assignment. LeCroy turned down the offer and returned to the Twins organization on a minor-league contract. He played just seven games with Minnesota in 2007, his final big league action.

LeCroy spent spring training with the Athletics in 2008 but was released at the end of camp. He hit .326 with 22 home runs and 83 RBI for the Lancaster Barnstormers of the Atlantic League that season and then chose to retire.

That previous coaching offer from the Nationals still stood, and he managed their Class-A affiliate in 2009. He has been a coach or manager in the Nationals organization ever since, including a two-year stint as the bullpen coach on the big league staff. He has been their Triple-A manager since 2020.

NOTES: All statistics in this article were taken from Baseball Reference and Stathead. Prospect rankings were from Baseball America. Other information was provided by The Athletic and the official MiLB website.

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[arby58]

It's a nice article, but the Twins didn't make a 'horrible trade' with Ortiz, they did something even worse - as the article notes, they just released him, which means they got nothing back from Boston. The headline should be changed.

[CRF]

Ortiz was released, not traded. Supposedly, the Twins tried to trade him and had no teams interested.

[Karbo]

That must be the biggest mistake the Twins ever made. As I remember the biggest knock on Ortiz was he couldn't "go the other way" and was a strict pull hitter. He sure would fit in well with the current FO plans of all or nothing though!

[old nurse]

The fallacy that will never die is that a player would have become for the original team what they became for the next team. 

[Ex-Iowegian]

Spring training in 2004… We were sitting down the 3rd base line next to the catchers end of the bullpen. Matthew was taking the day off and playing peekaboo with a couple of young Twins fans, and then gave each of them an autograph. I caught his attention and told him that I certainly hoped that he would get the chance to go “north” with the Twins that year. In his thick southern drawl he replied “so does my wife.” 
Always liked the guy.

[darwin22]

Always liked what LuCroy brought to the Twins with his bat.  A solid contributor over several seasons, especially in pinch hitting role.  

One of my favorite stories of LuCroy came from a random ST game in which, as a joke, I think it was Tom Kelly, sent LuCroy in to pinch run for Doug Mientkiewicz in a late inning.  Mientkiewicz, naturally was incredulous by this decision. The way I remember it, LuCroy was late getting to 1B to replace him and when asked postgame of this decision he replied by saying, "Well LuCroy was late getting out to run for me because he was busy wiping ketchup off his jersey from downing a cheeseburger!"

Not sure that was the reason, but it wouldn't surprise me as LuCroy's girth was well known.

[USAFChief]

34 minutes ago, darwin22 said:

Always liked what LuCroy brought to the Twins with his bat.  A solid contributor over several seasons, especially in pinch hitting role.  

One of my favorite stories of LuCroy came from a random ST game in which, as a joke, I think it was Tom Kelly, sent LuCroy in to pinch run for Doug Mientkiewicz in a late inning.  Mientkiewicz, naturally was incredulous by this decision. The way I remember it, LuCroy was late getting to 1B to replace him and when asked postgame of this decision he replied by saying, "Well LuCroy was late getting out to run for me because he was busy wiping ketchup off his jersey from downing a cheeseburger!"

Not sure that was the reason, but it wouldn't surprise me as LuCroy's girth was well known.

*LeCroy

[awmonahan]

Thanks for including the Frank Robinson story here. Somehow that one sticks with me as a piece of evidence for how much these guys work and how much happens behind the scenes, in the clubhouse. It startling watching a legend like Robinson break down over a decision about a backup catcher. 

[Dennesey55347]

Yeah, even though I was a little teed off the FO turned their back on Big O, I was also getting slightly annoyed with the strikeouts in key moments. Sort of a milder version of Sano. Ortiz never really found consistency until he left. I remember him saying that Boston's coaching dramatically improved his approach to hitting (knock on the Twins staff).

[Daniel Anderson]

If you are up against a trivia question of what MLB player was also a state tennis champion, believe it or not the man Gardy nicknamed Sammy Softball, Matthew LeCroy is the answer. Big man but apparently a very skilled all-around athlete, and from all reports a great guy.

[Rosterman]

You forget that the Twins jsut didn't want to pay Ortiz for what his arbitration salary would be that year they let him go.

LeCroy was still cheap, could also play catcher and first bse, and was showing similar lines of power.

It was pure economics on the Twins part.

[Squirrel]

6 hours ago, William Malone said:

Fans often remember Matthew LeCroy as the designated hitter Minnesota chose to keep over David Ortiz.

Your opening sentence seems to be in disagreement with your title. The title is incorrect.

[William Malone]

1 hour ago, Rosterman said:

You forget that the Twins jsut didn't want to pay Ortiz for what his arbitration salary would be that year they let him go.

LeCroy was still cheap, could also play catcher and first bse, and was showing similar lines of power.

It was pure economics on the Twins part.

Nobody wanted to pay Ortiz. Not even the Red Sox. He was a minor league deal with invite to camp guy, and he made the team. Rest is history. Like Willi Castro last year...except he became a Hall of Famer and not a solid bench guy.

[Linus]

18 minutes ago, William Malone said:

Nobody wanted to pay Ortiz. Not even the Red Sox. He was a minor league deal with invite to camp guy, and he made the team. Rest is history. Like Willi Castro last year...except he became a Hall of Famer and not a solid bench guy.

This is an important part of the story that gets overlooked. After the Twins let him go he was without a team for quite a while - months if I remember correctly.  Meaning most teams weren’t too interested in him. He was also injured a lot so while the decision turned out to be horrible most teams viewed him as the Twins did. Ironically his ability to go the other way which he still bitches about made him the perfect hitter for Fenway. That and the special vitamins he started taking in Boston. 

[Linus]

To add context to the game LeCroy eventually got pulled mid inning the other team was literally running at will. I don’t exactly remember but they stole 5 or 6 bases in 5 innings. LeCroy never had a good throwing arm and it was shot by then and everyone knew. Robinson was upset because he threw LeCroy to the wolves. It had to be one of the worst humiliations I’ve seen in 50+ years of watching baseball. 

[Doctor Wu]

16 hours ago, Rosterman said:

You forget that the Twins jsut didn't want to pay Ortiz for what his arbitration salary would be that year they let him go.

LeCroy was still cheap, could also play catcher and first bse, and was showing similar lines of power.

It was pure economics on the Twins part.

And at the time, I don't recall a whole lot of anguish or regrets from the Twins faithful. Of course, over the next several seasons, the regrets suddenly surged! Ah, hindsight is a wonderful thing. If only the front office's crystal ball had been working properly, then the Twins might have enjoyed at least a few years of productive Ortiz (until free agency of course). But we still needed pitching!

[ashbury]

13 hours ago, Doctor Wu said:

And at the time, I don't recall a whole lot of anguish or regrets from the Twins faithful.

That's because courtesy of arbitration they were about to have to pay him ...

.