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MLB places Cubs' Russell on leave after abuse accusations by ex-wife

Jeff Curry / Getty Images Sport / Getty

Chicago Cubs shortstop Addison Russell has been placed on administrative leave, Major League Baseball announced in a statement Friday, according to multiple sources.

Russell's ex-wife, Melisa Reidy, whose marriage to Addison was officially dissolved in August, wrote in a recent blog post that he physically and emotionally abused her.

A friend of Melisa's first accused Russell of "mentally and physically abusing" his ex-wife in an Instagram post in June 2017.

"Major League Baseball takes all allegations of domestic violence seriously," the statement read. "When the allegations against Addison Russell became public on June 7, 2017, the Commissioner's Office's Department of Investigations immediately commenced an investigation. Melisa Russell declined to participate in the investigation at that time. Our investigation of this matter has remained open and we have continued our efforts to gather information.

"With the new details revealed in today's blog post by Ms. Russell, Mr. Russell has been placed on administrative leave in accordance with the joint MLB-MLBPA Domestic Violence Policy. We are hopeful that this new information will allow us to complete the investigation as promptly as possible."

The Cubs issued a statement of their own, supporting the league's decision to put Russell on leave, according to MLB.com.

Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein and chairman Tom Ricketts met with the one-time All-Star after hearing of the allegations.

"We questioned him on it, and he reaffirmed his stance that he did not do what he was accused of," Epstein said, according to Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times.

Attorney Thomas Field, who previously represented Reidy, spoke with her on Friday. He confirmed the blog post was written by her, while also offering details as to why she declined to participate in MLB's previous investigation.

"She wasn't comfortable coming out and talking at the time for a variety of reasons," the lawyer told Tom Schad and Bob Nightengale of USA TODAY Sports. "Which I can't disclose from my (attorney-client) privilege. They were on top of her trying to meet at the time, but she declined.

"I don't know if MLB has reached out yet, but if they haven't, I expect they will in the next day or two. They were pretty tenacious the first time around, and were disappointed. They had the allegations from a post from her friend, but not hers directly.

"This is different. It's a post, not her words out loud in an interview, but it is a post. They are going to have to verity those are her words to pursue further investigation of it."

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