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Antonetti defends Lindor trade: 'We feel it's the right thing to do'

Alex Trautwig / Major League Baseball / Getty

The Cleveland Indians completed a franchise-altering trade Thursday by sending All-Star shortstop Francisco Lindor and right-hander Carlos Carrasco to the New York Mets for four players.

Cleveland president Chris Antonetti defended the decision to trade the face of the franchise as the team appears to be entering a rebuilding stage, though he said it wasn't a choice he made lightly.

"Trades like this are really, really hard to make," Antonetti said, according to Zack Meisel of The Athletic. "But at the same time, we feel it’s the right thing to do for us. A big part of the success we’ve had as an organization over the last decade or so is because we’ve been willing to make difficult choices to position our team to be successful. Hopefully, this will be - as painful as it is right now - a trade that positions us to be successful moving forward."

Lindor, 27, is slated to hit free agency after the 2021 season, and Cleveland wasn't seen as being in a position to offer him an extension to his liking.

Instead of letting him walk, Antonetti pulled the trigger on a blockbuster trade, even if the return of middle infielders Andres Gimenez and Amed Rosario plus two prospects appears light to critics.

"It does seem like if you look at the history of those deals," Antonetti said, “and what the expected return for players with one year left was 10 years ago versus today, that return might look appreciably different. … It’s just a very unique environment to execute transactions right now."

Cleveland has made the postseason in four of the last five years, including a trip to the 2016 World Series. That window of contention seemed to be closing, and the club decided to move on from the player they selected eighth overall in the 2011 draft.

The move also knocked more than $30 million off the team's payroll in 2021.

"At some point," Antonetti said, "things change and you have to transition. And we’re now doing that."

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