Chicago Cubs: Joe Maddon not holding players accountable

Chicago Cubs skipper Joe Maddon needs to start holding his players accountable for poor play in the field. It was clearly visible on Saturday.

In the offseason, Chicago Cubs President of Baseball Operations, Theo Epstein, stated that it’s time to stop evaluating players in terms of talent and start evaluating them on production. He has not followed through on that theory as the team continues to trot Addison Russell out in the everyday lineup.

He had, arguably, the worst game of his career on Saturday in the 6-5 victory over the San Diego Padres and, by Epstein’s standards, should have been pulled. Instead, he continued to pile blunder upon blunder.

It started in the bottom of the second inning when Almora smashed a line drive to the left fielder, Hunter Renfroe. Russell got caught between second and third and was doubled off at second base. In the next half inning, Manuel Margot hit a routine pop-up right above Russell’s head. I get he lost it in the sun but he needs to be screaming for help on this.

Instead, the ball fell in and lead to the Padres taking a 3-2 lead. In the bottom of the fourth inning with runners at 2nd and 3rd and 1 out, Almora hit another hard ball right at Manny Machado and Russell was thrown out at home on a play he never should have been running on. Three blunders in three innings should have been it for Russell, but it was the left-fielder Robel Garcia who was lifted for a pinch-hitter.

Moving on. In the top of the 6th inning, another pop-up was hit to Russell with the Cubs clinging to a 6-5 lead. He lost it again in the sun and let it fall in behind him without calling someone else on. Thankfully, Almora had a heads up play and threw out the runner caught between 1st and 2nd base.

Russell had his issues off the field and was kept by Theo Epstein despite him being a distraction to the organization. He’s mostly been a regular in the line up since returning on May 8 and has not played well. Through 52 games, Russell has slashed 0.241/0.323/0.404 with 6 home runs and 16 RBI’s (wRC+ 87, 0.7 WAR).

Other players have been guilty of this for sure as well but what I saw from Russell in Saturday’s game was inexcusable to let him continue playing. Any other sport and that lack of focus gets you removed from the game. It’s time for Maddon, who’s in the final year of his contract, to hold his players accountable. They are in a division race after all.