Thanks to the off-day, Addison Russell will get a day to rest his injured middle finger no matter what (assuming he doesn’t go driving on the Dan Ryan at rush hour today). Whether he can play tomorrow remains to be seen.
Russell originally injured the middle finger on his left hand early in June on an awkward swing, and he’s apparently been dealing with some soreness ever since. Despite that, he’s hit a whopping .324/.390/.485 in the four weeks since returning from that injury, so, uh, here’s hoping this latest incident doesn’t bother him too much.
Apparently it happened when he got stepped on in the mess of getting up from the collision with Javy Baez, and it doesn’t sound like a lock that he’ll be back tomorrow.
“It just got sore fast, got a little swollen,” Joe Maddon told Cubs.com, noting that Russell will “possibly” be OK for Tuesday’s game.
The Cubs are fortunate to have superior infield depth such that they could be without Russell for a couple days and not feel the sting too badly. And, you’ll note, the Cubs have another off-day on Thursday, so they could give Russell a couple games off, and he’d actually get four days to rest. If he winds up being held out tomorrow, keep that in mind before you freak out.