Making Jonathan Lucroy attractive to both suitors and the Brewers is a modest contract that includes a $4 million salary in 2016 and $5.25 million club option for 2017. Credit: Getty Images

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As a professional athlete who has his priorities straight, Jonathan Lucroy equates winning with having fun.

With the Milwaukee Brewers in the early stages of a massive rebuilding program, the veteran catcher is not expecting a lot of fun on the field in the next year or two.

"I'm not going to sit here and say we're going to compete for the playoffs this year," Lucroy said in a telephone interview Tuesday afternoon while running errands back home in Lafayette, La. "If I did that, you'd call me a liar. I'd lose credibility and respect.

"I want to win and I don't see us winning in the foreseeable future. I want to go to a World Series. That's what all players want. Rebuilding is not a lot of fun for any veteran guy."

With that in mind, Lucroy thinks it would be best for all concerned if the Brewers do what they've done with many veteran players since last July — trade him. He has been the subject of trade speculation since the end of the 2015 season, when new general manager David Stearns was charged with taking over the team's rebuilding process.

Lucroy, 29, remains a Brewer because no team has wowed Stearns with a trade offer he couldn't refuse. You don't find catchers with Lucroy's skill set that easily, and unless the club acquires a young prospect via trade there is no obvious successor in Milwaukee's system.

Making Lucroy more attractive to both suitors and his club is a modest contract that includes a $4 million salary in 2016 and $5.25 million club option for 2017. He signed a five-year, $11 million extension after his first full season in 2011, a deal that became club friendly when Lucroy evolved into a star catcher, offensively and defensively.

The Brewers, who went 68-94 last season while changing managers and general managers, are not expected to contend over the remaining two years of Lucroy's contract, which is why he would welcome a trade to a winning team.

"Yeah, absolutely. I want to win," he said. "It's not guaranteed that I'm going to win if I am traded. But I'm going to be a 30-year-old catcher (in June). I can't put numbers on how much longer I'm going to play, but as players we want to win. I don't care about the money; I just want to win. That's the bottom line."

Lucroy, who has been in contact with Stearns over the winter, said he hasn't demanded a trade. And he certainly would not show up at spring training with a bad attitude if he remains with the Brewers. That's not the way the affable clubhouse leader is wired.

"If I stay with the Brewers, I'm not going to go out and dog it," said Lucroy, who has limited no-trade protection in his contract. "I'm not going to be a bad teammate. I'm not going to be a bad clubhouse guy. I'm not going to be bitter. It's just part of the game.

"Right now, I'm planning on being with the Brewers. I'm not going to think anything different until something happens. It might and it might not. No one knows. I'm going to go out every day and compete with whatever team I'm with.

"It's a unique situation. I try to look at it objectively and without bias. As players, we can't help but play GM at times. It's definitely a hard thing, and I get that. There are injury concerns, which is fine. There are performance concerns, which is fine. That comes with the territory."

Those concerns sprouted from a truncated 2015 season in which Lucroy fell off badly at the plate while being limited to 103 games by a broken big toe and lingering concussion. After compiling a .837 OPS with 53 doubles — a record for a catcher — during his all-star 2014 campaign, Lucroy slipped to a .717 OPS with only seven home runs and 43 RBI.

Because of that fall-off, some say the Brewers would be selling low if they trade Lucroy now. It might have prevented interested clubs, such as the Texas Rangers, from approaching the high return Stearns would need to pull the trigger on a deal.

Not that he needed extra motivation, but Lucroy has pushed his off-season workouts to a more intense level than in the past. His brother David, a pitcher in the Brewers' farm system, has provided friendly competition during strenuous sessions the duo has chronicled on social media.

"We've been getting after it," Lucroy said. "Our trainer is pretty intense. It's been a good off-season, as far as that goes. I'm looking forward to having a healthy year this year. I'm a lot stronger than I've been in a long time.

"I have a chip on my shoulder and I plan on going out and showing people I'm perfectly fine. I want to go out and tear it up. It wasn't for a lack of effort last year. I just did not compete at the level I know I'm capable of. There's always doubters out there, which is fine. I plan on proving a lot of people wrong."

Beyond being unable to replace Lucroy behind the plate, the Brewers covet the role he could play as a voice of calm and reason, not to mention as a focal point of the club's marketing. As a group of highly regarded pitching prospects makes its way to the big leagues over the next few years, his influence in guiding the way would be invaluable.

That's all fine and good from the club's perspective, but Lucroy made it clear he is not looking forward to being outmanned on the field.

"As a competitor, I'm not OK with rebuilding. I'm not OK with losing," he said. "You don't want a player to be OK with that. They don't want a player to be OK with that. As fans, you shouldn't want a player to be OK with being average or being a mediocre team, and I'm not.

"We need to do a lot to get better. We have some holes to fill and some of them won't be filled for a few years. You've got to have firepower to be competitive. When you trade away veteran players, you don't have that firepower.

"I'm not upset about it; I'm not bitter about it. I'm just saying the truth. People have been asking me all off-season what's going to happen. I'm honest and I tell them. I don't believe in mincing words. This is a game you want to win at."

For the first time since joining the Brewers, Lucroy will not attend the team's annual fan fest in Milwaukee at the end of the month. While some speculated he didn't want to face a barrage of questions about possibly being traded, Lucroy insisted it had more to do with spending time with 5-year-old daughter Ellia, who is actively involved in gymnastics and dance programs.

If Lucroy remains a Brewer — and there is no sign any deal is close — he'll report early to spring training at Maryvale Baseball Park as always in mid-February. But he understands the trade rumors won't stop. In fact, they likely will get even hotter as the July 31 trade deadline approaches.

"That's fine," he said. "I've been playing this game long enough to know that's how it goes. I'm not going to worry about it until it happens. I can't do anything about it.

"Whatever jersey I'm wearing, I'm going to go out and give it all I've got. That's the bottom line. As of right now, I'm a Milwaukee Brewer and I'm getting ready to play for them."