Indians Announce Two-Year Extension With Triple-A Columbus

CLEVELAND – The Indians today announced the club and the Triple-A Columbus Clippers announced a two-year extension of their Player Development Contract through the 2018 season.

This is the third extension of the team’s Player Development Contract with the Clippers, which began in 2009. It continues a partnership that has sent Columbus to the International League playoffs four times and claimed three Governors’ Cups and two Triple-A National Championships. In this same time period, Columbus’ Huntington Park has been named “Ballpark of the Year” five times.

Chris Antonetti, Indians President, Baseball Operations: “The Indians are extremely excited to extend our relationship with the Columbus Clippers. The resources their front office staff provides is always first-class, in addition to the state-of-the-art facility and passionate fan base. We look forward to the continued success of our partnership.”

Carter Hawkins, Indians Director, Player Development: “The Clippers create a Major League environment in Triple-A. Our players and staff love playing in Columbus and we can’t think of a better setting to develop our players as they make their transition to Cleveland. We could not be happier to extend our partnership and look forward to many more outstanding seasons at Huntington Park.”

Ken Schnacke, Clippers President & GM: “We are delighted to take this opportunity to add two more years to our relationship with the Cleveland Indians, taking us contractually through the 2018 season, at which time will mean we have been together for ten seasons since we moved to Huntington Park. Everything about this relationship has been a “grand slam”; for the fans, for both franchises, and for both cities. We look forward to continuing this relationship and to seeing the Indians win a World Series Championship sometime in the near future.”