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Sometimes nothing says everything.
Cubs President Theo Epstein was sitting in a conference room on Friday at the Guaranteed Rate Field – curiously at the same stage, his team looked at his latest domestic abuse crisis two years ago – and carefully considered a question about Addison Russell.
Major League Baseball placed Russell on paid administrative leave after his ex wife accused her of spousal violence in a post related to his Instagram account and that Epstein was asked to testify to what he said. he thought of shortstop cubs.
"I would say that I know him in the context of baseball," said Epstein. "One of the things we've learned as a society by collectively trying to find a balance between how to handle charges like this one, is that it's important to realize that you know someone." One in one context and you do not really know it. & # 39; & # 39;
Consciously or not, the Cubs understood the need to step back and distance themselves from Russell, who may have played his last game with the team this season – and maybe never. The administrative leave imposed by the league, an intermediate step, may last up to seven days, after which MLB may request an extension of seven additional days. With the regular season on a week starting on Sunday, the Cubs could simply make their own statement at that time and let the struggling 24-year-old deviate from the playoff roster. The investigation and eventual discipline that ensues are in the hands of Major League Baseball.
Up to a resolution, the league's policy puts Russell in professional limbo, where Epstein seemed content to let him exist. If you were looking for a passionate defense of Russell, keep looking. Epstein's measured tone suggested that despite Russell's good manners with the gloves, the Cubs were not likely to see MLB's investigation concluding that a player representing the franchise had laid hands on a woman.
Evaluating Russell's accuser's willingness to come forward publicly one week before the playoffs, while convincing, is debatable. Worrying about the impact that Russell's potential absence will have on the Cubs' ability to play deep in October, while being understandable, is insensitive. These are allegations of spousal abuse and not defensive replacements.
"The timing is not ideal, but it does not matter," said Epstein, who attended the impromptu press conference with Cubs president Tom Ricketts. "What matters is to arrive at a fair and equitable resolution."
The disturbing nature of the claims required the Cubs to take them seriously and respond not only promptly but responsibly. The baseball world was watching and the Cubs were listening to their conscience, which called late Thursday night. It was then that Epstein saw the publication online and immediately called an MLB investigator to check the accuser. In a powerful personal essay of 2,800 words, Melisa Reidy-Russell described her former husband as a violent and physically abusive partner.
"The first time my wife mistreated me, I was in shock," wrote Reidy-Russell. "I could not understand what had happened. … why was he so angry? What did I do for him to want to get my hands on me? "
By reporting a visit to Chicago from Florida last summer so that Russell could see the couple's young son, Reidy-Russell hinted that an ugly altercation had occurred in front of the boy.
"I swore it would be the last time he would put my hands up and it would be the last time I would let my son testify," she said.
By the time Epstein contacted Russell on Friday morning to have a tough conversation – the player "reaffirmed his position" that he had never abused his wife, said Epstein – the Cubs understood the awkward place they suddenly occupied. More than ever in sport and society, domestic assailants began to be held accountable, but the Cubs still had to see how quickly they judged Russell on the basis of an indictment without evidence or a report. from police. It was not the Chapman case or MLB's other domestic abuse cases involving Roberto Osuna and Jose Reyes, which included law enforcement and a written record. These were charges that the police had never investigated, at least to the knowledge of the Cubs. It was different.
For reasons that only Reidy-Russell knows, she has refused to cooperate with MLB investigators since a family friend brought the first charge against Russell in June 2017. Maybe that's changing now, maybe not.
Anyway, the league has maintained the opening of the investigation since Reidy-Russell's refusal last summer – what Epstein said he knows through infrequent updates, but the director of the Cubs , Joe Maddon, Their different versions of MLB's state of the survey were a surprise given that Epstein and Ricketts met with the club's players before their match on Friday to tackle the situation.
Unexplainably, Maddon had not yet read the blog responsible for Russell's absence before meeting the media a little later; a player manager apparently dissociates himself from a Russell player to whom he recommended books and TV shows.
"Have you read it?" Asked a reporter to Maddon about the blog.
"Should I?" Maddon answered, but no one should have laughed.
In this case, Maddon was not informed, which was not the case, not to say inexcusable. Maddon was fine to ask for more time before drawing a conclusion on Russell but seeming not to be in a hurry to digest the allegations was a bad look.
"As a baseball player, I know him," said Maddon.
Beyond that, the Cubs did one thing about the controversy that nobody saw coming: they knew what they did not know about Russell's person, not the player.
David Haugh is a special contributor to the Chicago Tribune.
The evolution of the spousal violence investigation against Addison Russell "
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