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Addison Russell is close to finishing his suspension for violating MLB’s domestic violence policy after the league investigated allegations from his ex-wife Melisa Reidy. Russell was suspended 40 games and is currently playing in extended spring training games down in Arizona.
Russell is eligible to play a week at Triple-A to prepare for his return back to the Cubs in early May.
Although the Cubs haven’t made anything official on Russell’s future status on the 25-man roster, it is to be believed that he’ll be added to it once his suspension is over.
And that’s where the problem begins. No, this has nothing to do with accepting Russell back after the terrible allegations against him and the robot-like apology he gave in spring training, raising more questions about his sincerity. Bringing Russell back is one thing, but immediately putting him back as the primary shortstop is another and it would be a terrible decision by the club.
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Again, nothing is official, but during Thursday’s Q/A session on The Athletic with Cubs beat writers Patrick Mooney and Sahadev Sharma both reporters believe that Joe Maddon will put Russell back at shortstop over Javier Baez.
Maddon’s going to move the NL MVP runner up from the every day job at shortstop (by the way Baez is getting even better) for Russell who has a career .705 OPS in nearly 2,000 MLB plate appearances? Again, we’re talking about the baseball decision here not what you think about Russell as a person. Just handing him the shortstop job back seems like a garbage idea.
And it’s not just that Russell would get the majority of the playing time at shortstop because his return alone also impacts the playing time of other infielders who are playing well to start 2019.
Daniel Descalso, Ben Zobrist and David Bote have all produced, but if Russell is back on the 25-man roster and is considered a starter, then their playing time decreases.
And yes, Baez will need some days off to avoid any fatigue, but it seems kind of obvious that Russell should return only as a backup in the middle infield.
The other thing is, Russell still has minor league options, so really he should just stay at Triple-A until there’s a need for him on the bench either because of injury or someone is struggling.
Right now it’s safe to say that Mark Zagunis will be sent back to Triple-A when Russell is activated and that’s fine with Kris Bryant and Zobrist being able to play in the outfield. But man, handing Russell the starting job at shortstop is a terrible decision all around.
But that decision is still two weeks away and at best it’s informed speculation. Yet, Mooney and Sharma wouldn’t just be throwing shit to the wall and hoping to be right. Hopefully in this case, they are.
