Chicago Cubs: Addison Russell’s harrowing fall from grace

Chicago Cubs: She comes forward and tells her story

Everyone, Russell included, hoped the allegations and poor performance from 2017 were a thing of the past. Those hopes were for naught.

On the field, the shortstop put up largely pedestrian numbers. He hit north of .250 for the first time in his young career, but he still was a far cry from the All-Star caliber player we saw during the Cubs’ 2016 World Series campaign.

With the team seemingly destined for a third consecutive division crown and all eyes on October, despite inconsistent play from the Cubs, the other foot fell. Russell’s ex-wife, now Melisa Russell-Reidy, penned a tell-all blog post, detailing years of physical, mental and emotional abuse.

The post should be read in its entirety. I’m not going to pull bits and pieces out of it here, because it wouldn’t do it justice. But the fallout was immediate and dramatic.

Chicago placed Russell on administrative leave, the league re-opened their investigation (now with Russell-Reidy’s cooperation) and, to say the least, there were some questionable responses – especially from Cubs skipper Joe Maddon, who, at first, tried to stay clear of it all.

"“Addison hasn’t written anything either,” Maddon said. “I’m going to wait until the process runs its course. I’ll get all the information needed at that point. There’s nothing I can do about it. There’s nothing I can do to help the situation at all.”"

Maddon ultimately read the post, saying, “Domestic violence is horrible. It absolutely is,” Maddon said nearly a week after the blog post went up online. “By reading that, you feel her pain, absolutely.”