Former A’s catcher Lucroy knew of Astros’ sign stealing

Jonathan Lucroy knows his way around the AL West.

Between 2016 and 2019, he played for 60% of the division, suiting up for the Rangers, A’s and Angels — playing the Houston Astros in six series per year.

Lucroy said Thursday at Red Sox spring training in Florida that Mike Fiers told him as a member of the 2018 A’s that the Astros had a sign-stealing system outside the normal means for an MLB club.

“It’s kind of hard when you have a computer program that breaks your signs,” he said Thursday in his first appearance with his new club. “We actively changed signs. Every single pitch, we were changing signs. You had to because they would relay them to second, stealing them from first, too — from between your legs. They had a very intricate system going on. We were well aware of it, and it was a challenge.”

Lucroy echoed A’s manager Bob Melvin’s assertion earlier this week that the team took the issue to Major League Baseball long before Fiers went public in November and the league began its investigation.

He did not hear any of the now-famous trash-can banging, but he was bewildered by some of the pitches where Astros batters refused to swing.

“It all made sense when I found out how they were doing it. Then it was like, ‘ What are we going to do?’ ” Lucroy said. “I was with Oakland, and we had let MLB know, and they just called and said something. They didn’t go through the whole investigation. It wasn’t until Fiers came out publicly that they went and looked at it really hard.”

There’s been a chorus across MLB this week asserting commissioner Rob Manfred was wrong to give Astros players blanket immunity in exchange for information.

Lucroy joined those voices, citing ex-Brewers teammate Ryan Braun’s steroid suspension and Fiers’ argument that the Astros’ cheat-enabled success harmed the careers of opposing pitchers.

“It may be a Triple-A up- and- down guy, and he gets rocked because you’re stealing signs like that and gets sent down and never plays again,” Lucroy said. “Or a guy who gets his career ended because he goes out there and gets rocked. This game is a business, and if you’re not performing, you don’t play. Guys have families and have kids. That’s the hardest part for me.”