By Adam McCalvy

Encouraged by his progress since undergoing treatment for a right hamstring injury 10 days earlier, Brewers catcher Jonathan Lucroy made the case Friday that he might actually get more work than usual this spring, despite being sidelined for a chunk of Cactus League games.

The prognosis calls for Lucroy to miss 4–6 weeks of Spring Training, but he has been working out at Maryvale Baseball Park since Sunday and participated all week in baseball drills that did not involve running. Lucroy expects to catch pitchers’ bullpen sessions and take part in defensive drills as usual. He will refrain from running until cleared by the athletic training staff.

“There’s no rush,” Lucroy said. “I can do everything but sprint, which I couldn’t really [do] to begin with.”

Lucroy suffered a similar injury last August that flared up last month when he ramped-up his running. After an MRI scan and visits with two physicians, he was diagnosed with what the Brewers called a “mild strain” (technically, according to Lucroy, a slight tear to one of his hamstring tendons) and prescribed a platelet-rich plasma injection on Feb. 10.

As pitchers and catchers reported to camp Friday, Lucroy reported significant improvement.

“I’ve seen a lot of people say, ‘Oh my God, he can’t play.’ Well, actually, I can,” Lucroy said. “I’ll just go on the Minor League side and probably get three times as many at-bats as I could over here. I actually like doing that. It’s fun, because I can lead off or hit second every inning and to a 70 percent jog.”

Even at the long end of his projected rehabilitation, Lucroy should be back to full health in plenty of time for the Brewers’ April 6 season opener. In the meantime, the Brewers have two other catchers on the 40-man roster (Martin Maldonadi and Juan Centeno) plus four non-roster invitees Nevin Ashley, Parker Berberet, Cameron Garfield and Adam Weisenburger). Bullpen catcher Marcus Hanel also helps handle the workload during the busy early days of Spring Training.

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