UPDATE: According to TMZ, ​Cubs veteran Ben Zobrist's wife, Julianna, has filed for divorce.

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​At first, we initially thought the Chicago Cubs were placing ​Ben Zobrist on the injured list, but it turned out he actually requested a leave of absence from the team due to a personal matter. On Thursday, team president of baseball operations Theo Epstein weighed in, but provided few details.


We're unsure exactly what's going on, but the Cubs have offered Zobrist their full support during this time.

This situation could be much uglier than many first anticipated, especially given that it's very concerning there's no timetable for his return.


While this is all speculation at this point and nothing is confirmed, Twitter detectives discovered that Ben's wife, ​Julianna Zobrist, deleted her Twitter account and scrubbed her Instagram of a number of photographs depicting the Cubs veteran, leading many to believe the two are dealing with marital issues. Once again, it must be reiterated that this is all internet speculation based on circumstantial evidence.

As for Julianna's Instagram, it's certainly got fewer pictures of Ben now that it did before, but if you scroll down far enough, you'll see there are still many there as of this writing.

Maybe she forgot a few?

Or maybe she left a few up there to not make it seem conspicuous?

Perhaps there just weren't that many pictures of her and Ben to begin with.

All told, the Cubs faithful surely know better than most.

At this point, the truth of the matter isn't publicly known. We can only hope one of the more famous and lively couples in Chicago sports isn't experiencing hardship at this time. They're a beloved duo on the North Side and are known for their generous charity work, so there's no reason to wish them anything but the very best.