It has been a wild ride for Cleveland Guardians fans this season. The club is hovering just above .500, and both Luis Ortiz and Emmanuel Clase are under investigation for alleged involvement in a sports gambling scheme.
Most recently, the club released veteran slugger Carlos Santana, who had been with the team for 11 seasons. He had been struggling this season, hitting .225/.316/.333 with 11 home runs and 52 runs batted in.
President of baseball operations Chris Antonetti spoke about his talks with the veteran slugger. Via the Akron Beacon Journal's Ryan Lewis, Antonetti explains it was in the best interest of both sides.
"Over the course of the last week, we had a lot of dialogue with Carlos about where we were as a team, what opportunities for him might look like for the balance of the season and what might be best for him and us moving forward," Antonetti said. "We made the joint decision that a release was best for him and for us."
Guardians looking to close out the season with their young group
Chris Antonetti went into further detail about the decision to release Carlos Santana. Part of the reason was to give more looks to the younger players, C.J. Kayfus and Kyle Manzardo.
"I think we've continued to play competitive baseball, and our hope is that we can continue to find a way to win games between now and the balance of the season. And in an ideal world we can do that with a young group of players that would not only help us win this year, but also give them some experiences and opportunities and position them better heading [into the future]."
Antonetti hopes that the club can grind out the rest of the regular season with the younger players taking a bigger role. That would help them develop at a better rate and put them in a better position for the 2026 season.