"It's so much running it by him and how he feels about all this," Maddon said in an interview on the Laurence Holmes Show on Tuesday afternoon when asked about the input Baez will have. "I think it's important to do that. Again, I think he's arrived at that stature in the game to really have him unload his thoughts to us sincerely and not hold anything back and not try to say what he thinks we want to hear. I never want that out of any of my players. So we haven't had that yet with him. Again, we're working to that end right now. And we shall. I definitely want to hear what Javy has to say."
Baez has flourished in starting at shorstop in all 26 games of the Cubs' season. He has continued the high-level play that made him the National League MVP runner-up in 2018, as he's hitting .315 with nine homers, 22 RBIs and a .996 OPS.
Maddon had previously hinted at keeping Baez at shortstop full-time, and his words Tuesday seemed to provide more evidence for that approach when he did admit there's merit to keeping Baez in his usual rhythm. Prior to his suspension, Russell had been the team's primary starting shortstop since 2015, with Baez playing second base and receiving spot time at second base and third base. Russell also has experience at second base and could become a fixture there upon his return.
"That's still in a state of flux," Maddon said of the situation. "First of all, we're making sure that he's well and he's fine and he's playing good, and it sounds like he is. We've had some brief conversations talking about how to reinject him into the group at shortstop, at second base. And how do we do this with Javy? Of course, Javy's playing so well and he's been such a big part of this since last season and into this one and almost becoming MVP (in 2018), all this kind of stuff. There's a lot to consider. You have to consider the people, the person himself, the mindset, how's this going to be impactful. But you also have to consider what's best for the team. So there's a complicated conversation. It's not an easy one. So I've talked to Theo (Epstein) about it. I've talked to Jed (Hoyer) about it. I've talked to some of the coaches about it. We're not quite there yet having to finalize it, but it's gone all over the place regarding do you keep Javy at shortstop? Do you move him off? But then again, how much do you really feel Addison is ready to play? You could create this convoluted situation where it's much better to keep it simple. And I do believe as we get closer, we'll be able to nail it down and provide a more simple method to explain it to everybody."