Indians GM still stumped by why Lucroy blocked trade

Cleveland Indians general manager Mike Chernoff has yet to receive any clarity into why Jonathan Lucroy nixed a trade Sunday that would have brought the All-Star catcher to his club.

"It was his decision. We made the trade at like two in the morning on Sunday," Chernoff told MLB Network Radio on Wednesday. "He made the decision in the morning that he didn't want to accept the trade. I couldn't tell you why he made that decision. I'm sure there were many factors."

Hours before landing left-handed reliever Andrew Miller from the New York Yankees, the Indians believed they had a deal for Lucroy in exchange for prospects Francisco Mejia, Yu-Cheng Chang, Shawn Armstrong and Greg Allen. Cleveland, however, was on Lucroy's no-trade list, which allowed him to block the deal from going through.

Lucory didn't fully specify his rationale, saying there were "circumstances that came up." A report suggested part of the reason he didn't want to go to Cleveland was because he'd been told he would be used as a backup next season. When asked Wednesday if that were true, Chernoff said that he never had any conversations with Lucroy as league rules prevented them from speaking.

"He made his decision on whatever he made his decision on," Chernoff said. "Look, we were giving up a boatload of prospects ... We love those guys, those are really really good players that it was painful to give up. Just like we gave up in the Miller deal.

"To think we were using him as a backup seems crazy to us, but he had to make the decision that he made and whatever inferences he made on that, that was up to him, but we're obviously disappointed that we couldn't add him and his bat to our lineup."

Lucroy was eventually traded to the Texas Rangers along with Jeremy Jeffress for Lewis Brinson and Luis Ortiz.