The Cleveland Guardians' decision to trade Aaron Civale to the Tampa Bay Rays for first base prospect Kyle Manzardo is not that popular with their fans, but team president Chris Antonetti defended that it is a move they needed to make.

He said moving Civale is a tough decision but it had to be done after weighing it with the opportunity to acquire Manzardo.

"This was a really tough trade to make," the team official explained, per AP News.

"But we did feel it was a unique opportunity to acquire someone like Kyle. It came at a steep cost, but we do feel we have some options to turn to."

Civale was putting up a great season as part of the Guardians this season, turning in a 1.45 ERA over six starts in July. In that span, he was able to strike 25 batters with seven walks and allowed only one home run in 37 1/3 innings.

Why Did Guardians Trade for Kyle Manzardo?

The league has been bullish on Kyle Manzardo's rise.

He played 73 games for the Durham Bulls this season and put up .238/.342/.442 which comes along with an OPS of .784.

Antonetti hopes the 23-year-old can grow into a high level player under their wing.

"The industry holds Kyle in high regard and we think he can develop into a really good offensive player and he's a guy that's near or close to the major leagues at some point in the next few seasons," he said. "Those guys are not easy to acquire and so we made the choice in this case as we surveyed the landscape, but this is the right path forward for us."