SABR 54: Listen to highlights from Chris Antonetti’s welcome remarks
On Thursday, July 30, 2026, Chris Antonetti of the Cleveland Guardians delivered the welcome remarks at SABR 54 at the Hilton Cleveland Downtown hotel in Cleveland, Ohio.
Antonetti is the President of Baseball Operations for the Cleveland Guardians and in his 11th season as the club’s top baseball decision-maker. He was named 2016 Executive of the Year by Baseball America following the club’s World Series run. He has been with the organization since 1998, and served as Executive Vice President/General Manager from 2011 to 2015 and Assistant GM/Vice President of Baseball Operations from 2002 to 2010.
The session was moderated by Vince Guerrieri, president of SABR’s Jack Graney Chapter in Cleveland.
- Audio: Click here to listen to Chris Antonetti’s welcome remarks at SABR 54 (56:21; MP3)
Here are some highlights:
On staying with the same organization for many years
- Antonetti: “It starts with the people that I have been fortunate to work alongside in Cleveland. People often ask, what is it about the Guardians organization that keeps you here and that makes it successful? I know it’s somewhat cliche to say, but it’s really the people. I had an opportunity to come to the organization in November of 1998. Mark Shapiro hired me, John Hart was the GM, and Neal Huntington — who actually hired me with the Montreal Expos — was helping to lead the player development department. From the moment I joined the organization, I was immersed in a culture of learning and curiosity. There were incredibly high standards and a desire to be the best in the game at what we do. Being immersed in that environment really helped bring out, I hope, the best of me. And the fact that Mark and others continued to believe in me and give me maybe more responsibility than I thought I was ready for energized me to try to do the best I could do in whatever role I had. From that moment, one of our guiding principles has always been: let’s make sure we try to do the best we can to hire people that are going to make us materially better as an organization in some ways. And 28 years later, after hiring lots of people, I continue to feel privileged to work alongside so many great people that challenge me every day to be a better version of myself and that environment I’m grateful our ownership has allowed us to cultivate, and the continuity that we’ve had has made it a truly special place to work.”
On changes in baseball operations since 1998
- Antonetti: “When I joined the Guardians front office in November of 1998, there were eight of us that resided there in the baseball operations department here in Cleveland. There’s currently nearly 60 people in Cleveland. It’s ridiculous for me to say, especially in front of this room, but I was the analytics department and the R&D group at that time. It’s comical, knowing how far we’ve come in that space and things like research and development, strategy and analytics, sports science, performance science, mental skills, all of those areas weren’t built out in baseball at that time. We’ve seen a massive growth in the game and with that, there’s been a tremendous growth in data and what’s available to us and how we look at the game. That informs a lot more of our decisions in different ways than it did maybe 25 years ago.”
On the possibility of a labor stoppage in the 2027 MLB season
- Antonetti: “There’s two different ways I have to think about that in my role. First, the short term — which is, how do we build our team and what impact might that have as we think about trading players, acquiring players, and building our team in 2026 and beyond, and then try to weigh that against what we think might happen in the future. Then there’s the other element, to make sure regardless of what 2027 brings, we continue to be an adaptable, resilient organization that can get to the other side no matter what, no matter when there’s (a collective bargaining) agreement or what the structure looks like. So we kind of look at it through both of those lenses. On the first lens, there is admittedly uncertainty for what that means in 2027. As we’re thinking about maybe acquiring players that have control beyond this year, we have to think about how do we price that out and what talent we’re willing to give up, if we’re trying to trade back for a player. But beyond that, because it is unpredictable and we don’t know exactly what it will look like, we don’t place too much emphasis and allow that to impact the short-term planning of our team too much.”
On public response to the Guardians’ name change in 2021
- Antonetti: “There are a lot of very strong feelings on both sides of the coin. The good thing about doing this job for as long as I have is I’ve gotten used to a lot of people yelling at me. That’s just part of the deal, whether it’s about the name change or our terrible offense at the moment. … I do think it was the right decision for the organization, and I am certainly appreciative of our history and what the Indians’ name meant to so many people. And we’re not trying to forget about that. But I do think the more we engage with the Native American community, the more we really understood the negative impact it has had on them and their constituents, we felt we needed to be responsive to that and become an organization that could be more inclusive and more welcoming of everybody. It’s really sad when you hear stories about people literally making choices not to take their young children to the ballpark because of the name or because of a logo or because of an icon. And we thought we can do better as an organization, so let’s try to do that.”
For more coverage of SABR 54, visit SABR.org/convention.
Originally published: August 5, 2026. Last Updated: August 5, 2026.