Why the Addison Russell Situation won’t end up well for the Cubs
On top of an uncharacteristically rocky start, the Cubs now have a scandal to deal with. Their starting shortstop, Addison Russell, is being investigated by Major League Baseball for a potential domestic violence dispute.
Many have now attributed Russell’s bad start to this ongoing controversy, something which was not made public until last Wednesday, June 7th, when his wife, Melisa, posted an image on instagram which had a caption reading “Being free to be able to make your own decisions beats being cheated on, lied to & disrespected any day. #herestonewbeginnings #onlygetsbetterfromhere.”
While she claims Russell cheated on her, that isn’t the interesting part to the story. One of Melisa’s friends, Carlie Reed, posted a comment on that post, which read “”Hateful is cheating on your wife, mentally and physically abusing her. Melisa didn’t want that out but I’ll say it. He hit her. In front of Aiden and Mila. But let’s worry about Melisa being “hateful” she was loyal, forgiving and kind and still is.”
Obviously, three huge words stand out there. He hit her.
Baseball hasn’t exactly had the cleanest track record lately when it comes to domestic violence. Aroldis Chapman, Jeurys Familia, and Jose Reyes have all been suspended in the past year and a half because of domestic violence incidents. Obviously, commissioner Rob Manfred wants to lay down the iron fist on domestic violence, much like Roger Goodell claims to want to do for the NFL.
However, is Manfred going too far in his attempts to combat domestic violence? Absolutely. Rob Manfred, the commissioner of Major League Baseball, has shown a blatant disregard for the legal system in making decisions related to domestic violence incidents.
I think every reasonable human being would want proven spousal abusers to be punished. If it even needed to be proven, it was with the public outcry against Ray Rice after the TMZ tapes were released, showing him knocking out his then fiancee Janay Palmer in an Atlantic City elevator. This is, obviously, justified outrage, as there was proof Rice committed those acts and he was arrested for them.
However, the legal proof hasn’t seemed to matter to the MLB.
Last season, Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman was suspended for 30 games at the beginning of the season, costing him roughly $2.1 million dollars. The weird part about this? Aroldis Chapman was never charged with a crime.
Sure, Chapman admitted he shot a handgun while he was upset. However, you don’t need to be a lawyer to know that doesn’t constitute as domestic violence. His wife told prosecutors that he pushed her with his fingers so she would move out of the way, but that she lost her balance and tripped over a chair.
We don’t know whether this is true or not, but we do know that no charges were pressed against Chapman. Despite this, the MLB suspended Chapman for 30 days.
They also suspended Mets closer Jeurys Familia for 15 games due to a domestic violence incident that he didn’t get charged for either.
While this is terrible, this doesn’t even touch the extent to which Rob Manfred has shown disregard for the courts. Then-Colorado Rockies shortstop Jose Reyes was put on leave by the team after being charged with domestic violence. The MLB investigated the situation, and announced their formal punishment for Reyes on May 13th, suspending him through the end of the month.
The Rockies had “suspended” him until that May 13th date. Major League Baseball ended up suspending someone guilty of domestic violence for 17 games just weeks after suspending two innocent men for 30 and 15.
Due to this, it likely does not matter whether Addison Russell is guilty or innocent. With Rob Manfred’s logic, those who are not charged with domestic violence can get larger punishments than those who are charged.
This will, or is likely going to end up being, a colossal blow to an already struggling Cubs team which currently sits a game under .500 after being swept by the Rockies. They can’t afford to lose another bat, but have to brace for discipline in the Addison Russell case.
Russell did play in the series finale after not appearing in the first two games, two which happened to be the days directly after this whole thing blew up on instagram. Rather hysterically, his first game back was on the Cubs’ family night, a 9–1 loss to the hands of Colorado.
Then again, this has the possibility of blowing over. Maybe, hopefully, I am wrong and nothing happens in this case. But given the MLB’s stance on domestic violence, I doubt it.
