In a move that came a year too late for many Cubs fans, the team on Monday cut ties with troubled shortstop Addison Russell, deciding not to offer the arbitration-eligible player a 2020 contract at Major League Baseball’s deadline for tendering contracts.
Russell, a 2016 All-Star whose performance declined during a lengthy domestic violence investigation by MLB that began in 2017, eventually served a 40-game suspension that began in September 2018 and continued through the first month of 2019.
Team president Theo Epstein, who drew significant backlash from a vocal sector of fans a year ago when he made the decision to keep Russell into the 2019 season, suggested in a statement that Monday’s decision was a baseball decision only.