Written by Pedro MouraFOX Sports MLB Writer
Although Freddie Freeman is clearly emotional about the end of his 15-season game with the Atlanta Braves, it’s hard to argue that this affects his performance at the Dodgers.
He works almost exactly to his top career norms. He was the most consistent member of a surprisingly unstable set on which so many other celebrities struggled or suffered severe injuries.
Because of all of this, the current drama surrounding his return to Atlanta over the weekend is more curious than caring for L.A. And she is certainly curious. When was the last time anyone showed so much emotion about which team pays them to play baseball?
Freddie Freeman’s emotional return to Atlanta
Ben Verlander talks about the emotional scene that took place in Atlanta when Freddie Freeman first returned to Truist Park as the Los Angeles Dodger. This may interest you : Netflix is canceling one of its longest-running series.
Freeman spent the weekend crying, hugging his former teammates and continuing to hit his typical elite shot. A similar visit by the Braves took place in mid-April in Los Angeles. Freeman spent hours before the games on the side of first base at Dodger Stadium, where he caught up with coaches, Braves players and even beat reporters.
Then he fired a few homers.
But these were the 10th, 11th and 12th game of the Dodgers of the season. It’s only been a month since Freeman decided to leave Braves. Now, half the season is approaching and Freeman is still talking about the ending – sometimes how he doesn’t need it, other times how.
“If you’ve been in a relationship for 15 years and it’s over, you’re going to have feelings,” Freeman told reporters after arriving at the next destination on this Dodgers trip. “And I had feelings. I went through this process of mourning, and now I’m in the process of healing and in the process of progressing.”
In a sense, many of us crave this from the athletes we cheer for. We want them to care so much about the companies they hire, and we swear by them when they go elsewhere. Freeman’s case is so the opposite that it has upset some who wonder why he is still worried about his previous employer when his current one has so many advantages.
He is close to home, a fact he highlighted at his introductory press conference. Apparently he plays for the winner. And the Dodgers fan base, top executives and top players have already shown affection for Freeman. Fans chanted his name in his first weeks of playing at Dodger Stadium. Baseball Operations President Andrew Friedman has used the word “true” three times to emphasize how good Freeman thinks he is. Mookie Betts described him as a close friend.
Meanwhile, the Braves made it clear they were moving forward. When asked about Freeman’s departure in April, manager Brian Snitker listed a number of other minor players who also left the organization as a free agent.
The closest public criticism Freeman heard from the Dodgers was Clayton Kershaw’s remark to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution over the weekend, in which he said he hoped the Dodgers weren’t Freeman’s “second violin”. Above all, Kershaw himself has decided to continue his 16-season relationship with the Dodgers in the last off-season, instead of signing a contract with the team closest to his home.
“I think when he gets comfortable here,” Kershaw told the newspaper, “he’ll really enjoy it.”
If Freeman hasn’t enjoyed it so far, that’s not exactly evident in his game. He walks, limits his strokes, runs the bases well, and hits the line drives. He plays every single game. His efforts to move from his tenure to the Braves do not rank at the top of any list of the Dodgers ’biggest fights so far this season. (To be clear, each such list should be marked with an asterisk with the fact that the team entered the game on Wednesday with 100 wins. But they have higher expectations in Los Angeles.)
Much higher on the Dodgers ’current list of concerns are the injuries of Kershaw, Walker Buehler and now Betts, as well as the poor play of Justin Turner, Max Muncy and Craig Kimbrel. Freeman is doing exactly what the Dodgers envisioned when they came and beat the Braves ’offer.
Although due to the money deferred, due to the reported negligence of the agents, it may happen that the Dodgers ’offer did not actually beat the Braves. And it’s hard to draw any other conclusion from the events this weekend, as if Freeman wanted to re-sign a contract with Atlanta if the offers were really equal – or even almost the same.
It’s too late for anything to change, and the only way for it to become a problem for the Dodgers is if Freeman is so incapable of continuing that it affects his performance, or if that inability affects his relationship with teammates. That is possible.
But given his result in three months, it seems more likely that Freeman will play well enough to be fine in Los Angeles.
Pedro Moura is a national baseball writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the Dodgers for The Athletic for three seasons, and the Angels and Dodgers for five seasons for the Orange County Register and L.A. Times. He previously covered his alma mater, USC, for ESPNLosAngeles.com. The son of Brazilian immigrants, he grew up in a suburb of Southern California. His first book, “How to Overcome a Broken Game,” came out this spring. Follow him on Twitter @pedromoura.
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