La Stella back and in Chicago Cubs lineup

Whether you wanted Tommy La Stella back or not, give the Chicago Cubs credit for taking a complicated situation and not trying to oversimplify it.

The Cubs welcomed wayward son La Stella back Wednesday, recalling him from Class AAA Iowa and immediately inserting him into the starting lineup for the night's game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Wrigley Field.

La Stella, a 27-year-old infielder, took about three weeks off after the Cubs optioned him to Iowa in late July. In one published report, he said he wanted to play for the Cubs and no one else.

Instead of punishing La Stella, the Cubs gathered their resources, including sports psychologist Ken Ravizza, and kept in touch with the player.

La Stella eventually reported to Class AA Tennessee, playing two games there beginning Aug. 22 before going to Iowa.

"Certainly, under different circumstances, we would have taken some sort of punitive action," said team president Theo Epstein. "But after talking to him and taking the time to understand where he was coming from, things that have happened to him in the past, what his thought process was, I didn't think it was appropriate to be punitive.

"I thought it was more appropriate to be supportive to a point and help him grow from it and get back to this point."

La Stella addressed his teammates before making his way to the interview room to meet with the media and answer questions for close to 15 minutes late in the afternoon.

He said he was not suffering from any personal-health problems and that the reasons for his absence were "personal" and related to baseball experiences.

The Cubs obtained La Stella in November 2014 in a trade with the Atlanta Braves. He missed much of last season with a rib-cage injury.

"It's a lot of stuff that's personal, between the injuries and kind of my journey through the game and everything like that that's gotten me to this point," he said. "It's not necessarily going to be a black-and-white, cut-and-dried answer where everybody goes, 'Oh, I get it now.' That answer doesn't really exist.

"It's all stuff personal regarding baseball, related to baseball. Just that's happened throughout my career, not necessarily personal issues with me or anything like that. Just personal stuff throughout my career."

La Stella took his position at second base for the start of Wednesday's game and got a glove tap from right fielder Jason Heyward. There were a few boos from the crowd when La Stella came up to bat in the second, but for the most part the response was positive.

"To be honest with you, that meeting with the guys was huge for me," La Stella said. "It was nice to get all that stuff off my chest and be open and honest with them about everything.

"I couldn't not do what I felt was right for me because of how it might be perceived by other people."

La Stella also thanked Epstein for the support and praised manager Joe Maddon for being "a comforting presence."

"Theo's obviously a very special guy," he said. "I was very fortunate to be able to have the dialogue between me and him throughout this whole process. He understands people, and he treats you like a person.

"He was talking to me like a guy. He wasn't talking to an employee, which I really, really appreciated throughout the whole process."

La Stella added his leaving the Cubs had nothing to do with being upset about being sent to the minor leagues.

"I know it sounds absurd to say, but it had absolutely had nothing to do with that," he said. "I made that very clear to Theo. I told him when it happened that I totally understood the move."

La Stella added that he was unsure about his career beyond this year. He did say that his view of and love for the game has changed.

"And that dates back to last year," he said. "It has changed a little bit. It's not nearly as enjoyable going out and pursuing for myself my at-bats, how I'm doing, everything like that. I got a taste of that last year.

"Baseball is a team game played by individuals, so you do have to go for the individual aspect of it, but for me, that's kind of what detracted from my enjoyment of the game in the first place.

"This year for me, it was not about that. It was about kind of going back to the way I used to play it when it was more enjoyable, high school and college when you were going for something collectively as a group and you can kind of share and enjoy your teammates' successes as well as your own."