C · 2021

Jonathan Lucroy

Washington Nationals National League EastC

Age: 35
B/T: R/R
Height: 6' 0"
Weight: 200 lb
Number: #20

Born: June 13, 1986 in Eustis, FL, USA
MLB debut: May 21, 2010

dbWAR: 10.5
PA: 23
AVG: .316
OBP: .409
SLG: .368
wRC+: 129

Jonathan Lucroy is a catcher for the Washington Nationals. In 2021 he hit 0 home runs and knocked in 3 RBIs, notching 6 hits across 23 plate appearances in 7 games. His batting average was .316, 29.5% higher than the league average of .244. He reached base at a .409 clip and slugged .368, for an OPS of .778, 6.8% higher than the league mark of .728. He averaged 88.4 mph off the bat, hit 43.8% of balls in play at 95 mph or better and made contact on 80.6% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 129 wRC+ puts his offence 29% above average. That comes to 0.2 dbWAR — +0.7 runs with the bat, -0.0 on the bases, +0.4 for the position he plays, against replacement level. It includes no fielding: defensive runs are proprietary and are not estimated here, so the figure credits playing a demanding position but not playing it well.

League context

Percentile among qualified batters, 2021.

wRC+129

wOBA.355

ISO.053

BB%13.0%

WAR.2

How the WAR is built

Runs above replacement, 2021. These four terms sum to +1.9 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR.

BattingBaserunningPositionReplacement

WAR by season

Batting

Standard and advanced, by season.


2021	7	23	6	0	3	0	3	4	.316	.409	.368	.053	.400	13.0%	17.4%	.355	+0.7	129	0.2
2019	94	328	68	8	36	0	27	51	.232	.305	.355	.123	.253	8.2%	15.5%	.288	-9.7	76	0.6
2018	126	454	100	4	51	0	29	65	.241	.291	.325	.084	.273	6.4%	14.3%	.274	-16.4	72	0.8
2017	123	481	112	6	40	1	46	51	.265	.345	.371	.106	.286	9.6%	10.6%	.315	-4.0	88	1.9
2016	141	544	143	24	81	5	47	100	.292	.355	.500	.208	.322	8.6%	18.4%	.366	+19.1	131	4.8
2015	103	415	98	7	43	1	36	64	.264	.326	.391	.127	.297	8.7%	15.4%	.317	+0.1	97	2.2

Platoon splits

How he hits left- and right-handed pitching.

Season

Batting by the hand the pitcher throws with, 2021. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
Split	PA	AB	H	HR	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA	K%
vs LHP	12	11	3	0	1	3	.273	.333	.364	.311	25.0%
vs RHP	11	8	3	0	2	1	.375	.500	.375	.408	9.1%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2021.

Loading 16 batted balls…

Contact quality

How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 16 tracked batted balls in 2021. Percentiles are against qualified batters.

Barrel rate: 0.0%
Exit velocity: 88.4
Max exit velo: 104.9
Hard hit: 43.8%
Sweet spot: 37.5%
Launch angle: 18.7°

Barrel rate0.0%

Exit velocity88.4 mph

Hard hit rate43.8%

Contact rate80.6%

A barrel is a batted ball whose exit velocity and launch angle have historically produced at least a .500 average and 1.500 slugging — 98 mph within 26–30°, widening to 8–50° by 116 mph. Reconstructed from Statcast's published anchor points, which reproduces them exactly; the interior is within a degree. Sweet spot (8–32°) is an exact definition.

Hot and cold zones

Batting average by pitch location, 2021.

Below averageLeague averageAbove average

Batting average by location of the pitch that ended each plate appearance, catcher's view. The bordered square is the strike zone; the outer band is chase territory. Cells with fewer than 8 at-bats are left grey rather than shown as signal. League average on the same attribution is .243.

Situational hitting

How Jonathan Lucroy hits by base state, outs, score and late-game pressure — each read against his own season line.

Split by

By who is on base when he comes up. The season line is repeated as the baseline.
Situation	PA	AB	H	HR	RBI	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA
All situations	23	—	—	—	—	—	—	.316	.409	.368	.355
Bases empty · thin	11	9	2	0	0	2	3	.222	.364	.222	.291
Runner on first · thin	7	6	2	0	0	1	0	.333	.429	.333	.354
Runners on · thin	12	10	4	0	3	1	1	.400	.455	.500	.419
RISP · thin	5	4	2	0	3	0	1	.500	.500	.750	.532

Runners on includes runners in scoring position, which is the convention every reference uses. Rows under 25 plate appearances are marked thin — at that size a rate moves several dozen points on one hit. Counted from play-by-play, 2021.

Head to head

Put Jonathan Lucroy beside up to three others.

Compare — add up to 3 more players

Jonathan Lucroy

How these are computed

wOBA uses linear weights measured from this season's own play-by-play rather than published constants, and wRC+ is park-adjusted against that same league. dbWAR is our own open implementation — not fWAR or bWAR — and the full derivation, including its simplifications, is on the methodology page.