Matthew LeCroy

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.