Ian Stewart Faces Fine, Suspension For Twitter Rant

We've been discussing Ian Stewart and his complaints about still being in the Cubs organization in this FanPost, but there's new information Tuesday afternoon that I believed warranted a front-page post.

In the Tribune, Paul Sullivan summarizes the issue and quotes general manager Jed Hoyer:

Triple-A Iowa third baseman Ian Stewart faces a fine and possible suspension by the Chicago Cubs for his Twitter rant about his status in the organization.

But he will not be released, as Stewart suggested himself during a late night tweet to his followers.

The Cubs were upset about Stewart’s comments, but would not say what the punishment would be.

"We spent the entire morning dealing with an issue that doesn’t help us get better as an organization," Cubs general manager Jed Hoyer said. "That’s not how we want to spend our time. What he did was really unprofessional and there are going to be consequences. Beyond that, I’m not going to comment."

Sullivan's article brings you up to speed on Stewart's tweets from Monday night, which essentially begged the Cubs to release him. Of course, in that case, Stewart would be free to pursue another job, while the Cubs still pay him the balance of the $2 million deal they signed him to -- ill-advisedly, in my view -- last offseason. You can imagine that's not high on the list of things that Hoyer and President of Baseball Operations Theo Epstein are going to be willing to do.

Two tweets from Rockies beat writer Troy Renck -- who knew Stewart in Colorado -- sum up the issue perfectly:

I hope Ian Stewart gets shot with another team. Cubs are dead end for him. Were before Twitter rant. Should have left that up to agent.

— Troy Renck (@TroyRenck) June 11, 2013

I talked with Stewart in Chicago. I like the guy. I told him to just do well, grind it out, even in BP, and have agent take up his cause.

— Troy Renck (@TroyRenck) June 11, 2013

Renck is correct. While it is true that Stewart likely has no future with the Cubs -- primarily because of his poor performance in Triple-A -- going on Twitter with his complaints was exactly the wrong thing to do. Maybe his agent is already talking with Cubs management about gaining his release -- if so, Stewart should have let his agent, a guy he is paying to represent his interests to management, continue to do so, and simply go silent and do his job, which is to play the best baseball he can at Iowa.

I think that if you look at this issue from a personal standpoint, you'd see my point. If you were having an issue at your job and were under contract from which you needed a release to get a new job, blasting your boss in public wouldn't be the way to gain that release.

Finally, I do think one thing is for sure: we'll never see Ian Stewart play another game in the blue pinstripes of the Chicago Cubs.