(670 The Score) In the aftermath of manager Joe Maddon displaying a detached and disengaged demeanor regarding abuse allegations leveled against shortstop Addison Russell by his ex-wife, Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein met with him to explain the seriousness and sensitivity surrounding the situation.
Russell has been placed on administrative leave by MLB following the accusations from Melisa Reidy-Russell that were detailed in a blog post last week. In an interview on the Bernstein & McKnight Show on Tuesday afternoon, Maddon bristled at a series of questions surrounding the tone he has displayed over the allegations and explained that he had no reason to read the blog post.
In light of that, Epstein and others met with Maddon, who by Wednesday afternoon had read the blog post.
"Look, my view is that domestic violence is clearly everyone's issue, both from a standpoint that it's a major problem in our society, and so it deserves all of our collection attention," Epstein said on the Mully & Haugh Show on Thursday morning. "Any time there's an accusation, it's not just an issue between the husband and wife, but everyone in their orbit should give full attention and concern to it. And then beyond that, as leaders in the organization, we are responsible in some important ways for the conduct of our players while they're in the organization. Beyond that, our players' wives are also a part of our organization, a part of our larger family. That also makes this a matter of our attention and concern. While we're not the investigative body and it's not at a point where anyone should draw any conclusions, I think the organization cares.
"It deserves all of our attention and care. And Joe does care. And so when he made his comments, I thought it didn't accurately reflect the level of care that I know that he has as a person and as a leader of the organization. So we simply talked about it. We had a very nice, civil conversation about it and explained our viewpoints. And so Joe, he did read the piece. And I think his comments yesterday more clearly demonstrated the level of attention and concern that he has and certainly that we have as an organization."
Russell remains away from the Cubs. His administrative leave expires at the end of Thursday, though that time frame can be extended if the league and players' union agree. The investigation is continuing, with no new update as of Thursday morning, Epstein said.
League investigators have interviewed Russell-Reidy and acquired other credible information, the Athletic reported Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Maddon struck a tone that bothered some in the Cubs organization, saying of the Russell situation, "There's nothing I can do about it."
"I'm not going to be swayed one way or another by reading this," Maddon said before he read the blog post. "I really have no interest in reading this. I'm more interested in waiting for the investigation to finalize itself, and then I'll read what's going and what had been said once it's been vetted properly. Anybody can write anything they want these days with social media, blogging, etc. So I'm just going to wait for it to play its course, and then I'll try to disseminate the information based on both sides, MLB itself, along with the players' union and getting together with Addison and his former wife, and then I'll read the information to try to form my own opinions at that point."
