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Joe Maddon: 'I really don't believe I need to' read post accusing Addison Russell of abuse

Joe Maddon hasn’t read Melisa Reidy’s blog post accusing her ex-husband, Addison Russell, of years of mental and physical abuse. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
Joe Maddon hasn’t read Melisa Reidy’s blog post accusing her ex-husband, Addison Russell, of years of mental and physical abuse. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)

Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon did a radio interview on Tuesday with Chicago sports talk station 670 The Score. And when he was asked about Cubs shortstop Addison Russell, he revealed that he hasn’t read the account of abuse written by Russell’s ex-wife, Melisa Reidy, and he has no plans to. Russell is currently on administrative leave while MLB investigates Reidy’s abuse allegations, which Maddon questioned because Reidy chose to publish them on the internet.

Maddon won’t read Reidy’s blog post

Maddon appeared on the midday show Bernstein & McKnight, and had some lengthy comments about the abuse accusations against Addison Russell. He said that he’s completely uninvolved in the investigation into Russell — in fact, he’s so uninvolved in the whole situation that he doesn’t even feel he needs to read Reidy’s blog post.

Asked if he’s read Reidy-Russell’s account, Maddon replied, “No, I really don’t believe I need to.”

“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. Like I said, there’s a process in place. […] We’ll wait for decisions to be made based on folks who actually are investigating this. I really have no involvement. I really do want to stay clear of it, because there’s nothing I can do to help it.”

Maddon made one thing very clear: there is nothing he can do to change what’s happening, so even though one of his players has been accused of spousal abuse, he doesn’t feel like he needs to seek out any information beyond what he’s been told — and that includes the source material of the accusations.

Maddon wants Reidy’s blog post to be “vetted properly”

Maddon continued talking about the abuse accusations, albeit somewhat defensively. After repeatedly saying he has zero involvement in anything, he emphasized that he’s waiting for Major League Baseball’s investigation to conclude before he reads Reidy’s blog post.

Pressed why he wouldn’t at least read Reidy-Russell’s half of the story, Maddon bristled.

“Again, I have nothing to do with this,” Maddon said. “This is between her and Addison. There is a process in place to deal with this.

“I’m not going to be swayed one way or another by reading this. 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.

Saying that anyone can write something on the internet is an easy and convenient way for someone to question and dismiss the validity of things they don’t like, which is just what Maddon is doing. The accusations weren’t made in an anonymous blog post, and Reidy isn’t “anyone” writing “anything.” She’s the ex-wife of one of his players, and she’s sharing her story of domestic abuse. Maddon hasn’t bothered to read Reidy’s blog post, but he has no problem questioning it because she chose to publish it on the internet.

Maddon’s comments on Tuesday are in opposition to what he said when Reidy’s blog post came to light last Friday. He repeatedly said he wanted to get all the information about the situation, but apparently he only meant what Major League Baseball officials told him. Reidy’s blog post is actual information, but as Maddon said, he’s not interested in reading the words of the alleged victim because “anybody can write anything they want these days” on the internet.

MLB is investigating Addison Russell

Melisa Reidy, who had a child with Russell in 2015 and was married to him from 2016 until Aug. 30, 2018 (when their divorce was finalized), published a blog post last week that detailed the years of mental and physical abuse she suffered at the hands of her spouse, whom she chose not to name.

MLB announced later that day that in accordance with the Joint MLB-MLBPA Domestic Violence Policy, Russell was being placed on administrative leave while it investigated the new abuse allegations. While the content of the allegations is new, MLB has been investigating Russell for domestic abuse since June 2017, when one of Reidy’s friends left a comment on one of her Instagram posts accusing Russell of hitting Reidy in front of his children.

At the time, Reidy refused to speak with MLB investigators, so the investigation stalled. However, it was never closed. It’s not known if Reidy will cooperate with investigators this time around.

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Liz Roscher is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at lizroscher@yahoo.com or follow her on Twitter at @lizroscher.

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