Addison Russell Suspended 40 Games For Violating Domestic Abuse Policy

Major League Baseball announced today that Cubs shortstop Addison Russell has been suspended 40 games following the league’s investigation into allegations that he abused his ex-wife, Melisa Reidy-Russell.

The suspension, which is retroactive to Sept. 21, was announced in a statement released by the commissioner’s office:

The allegations against Russell were first made in June of last year, but were re-injected into the news cycle two weeks ago when Reidy-Russell wrote a blog post describing years of physical and emotional abuse she says she experienced while married to Russell. MLB hastily placed Russell on administrative leave after the blog post went up, and then claimed that they had in fact been investigating the allegations for the past 15 months. Things progressed further last week, when Reidy-Russell announced that she was willing to cooperate with the league’s investigation, something she was unwilling to do last June.

The Cubs’ season ended last night with a wild card loss to the Colorado Rockies, so Russell’s suspension will begin next season.