Theo Epstein was on 670 The Score Thursday morning and although he didn't get into specifics about Addison Russell's return to the Cubs you can certainly read into his comments and come to a realistic conclusion.
For starters, there's no guarantee that the Cubs will activate Russell to the 25-man roster on May 3, when Russell is eligible to play after serving his 40-game suspension for violating MLB's domestic violence policy. The league announced the suspension after the Cubs lost the Wild Card Game against the Rockies last October.
Epstein also talked with reporters prior to Thursday's series finale against the Dodgers at Wrigley Field.
During his interview on The Bernstein and McKnight Show, Epstein also talked about making the best players on the team feel comfortable.
Via 670 The Score.
"We're focusing on the guys that are here that are members of this club. We'll make any future decisions at the appropriate time factoring in the guys who are at the center of what's going on with this ballclub. You want your best players to be comfortable, you want your best players to be put in a position to impact a game as much as possible.
Yeah, Theo's definitely talking about Javier Báez. He just came runner up in the 2018 MVP race and has been the starting shortstop since Russell's been suspended and the times he's been on the injured list. Báez isn't slowing down offensively and he's making more jaw-dropping plays on the field too. Specifically, he's making throws consistently that Russell hasn't proven to make with the Cubs from the shortstop position.
Epstein's comments paired with Joe Maddon's following comment definitely points to the Cubs not moving El Mago off shortstop.
This was Maddon talking about Russell Wednesday night.
Seems like that was a quick discussion.
All this is coming after there was some speculation from Cubs beat reporters Patrick Mooney and Sahadev Sharma, who both were under the impression that Maddon would put Russell right back at shortstop when he returned from his suspension.
But now there's no guarantee that Russell will be back when he's eligible to return to the Cubs on May 3, and even when he does come back it'll most likely be splitting time at second base, with Báez remaining as the starting shortstop.
Russell is currently playing for the Iowa Cubs.
