Addison Russell, the Chicago Cubs’ starting shortstop for four seasons, will return from a 40-game suspension on Thursday, but he won’t be returning to the major league squad, at least not right away.
The Cubs have told that Russell that he will be optioned to Triple-A Iowa instead. While he’s down there, he’ll see time at shortstop and second base, according to Cubs team president Theo Epstein.
Epstein said it was a baseball decision, not a move related to the cause of Russell’s suspension, which was handed down late last season by Major League Baseball for a violation of its domestic-violence policy.
Russell’s ex-wife, Melisa Reidy, alleged that Russell abused her multiple times.
MLB policy allows for a player to spend seven days in the minors as the suspension is about to end, and Russell has played six games with the Iowa Cubs, going 5-for-20 with one home run and seven RBIs.
“While there have been some real promising signs with his play, six games just isn’t enough to get fully up to speed to come help the major league club,” Epstein said.
Cubs manager Joe Maddon said he didn’t have a date for Russell’s return to the majors, “but he shouldn’t be down there that long of a period of time. He is a major league player, and as long as everything is going well, you don’t want him sitting down there so long that it starts becoming almost negative regarding his development.”
The Cubs entered play Tuesday 14-12 and in third place in the National League Central, but they had won 11 of 15 games, and Javier Baez has been at shortstop all season. Baez was hitting .315 with nine home runs and 22 RBIs through Monday.
“I think any observer of the club can realize how central Javy is to everything that we do and everything that we do well,” Epstein said. “And just in general, reducing the amount of variability for your best player makes a lot of sense. And increasing the versatility for someone like Addison makes a ton of sense.”