With Baseball Lockout Over, Freddie Freeman Should Find A Home Fast

With baseball training camps opening Sunday, Freddie Freeman probably won’t wait long to end his free agency.

The former National League MVP could return to the Atlanta Braves, the only team he’s known during a 12-year career in the majors.

Or he could leave the reigning World Champions and sign with the Los Angeles Dodgers, a team with more money that plays close to his home in Southern California.

Freeman could also jump to the New York Yankees, who need a first baseman and believe his left-handed power would prove a perfect match to the short right-field dimensions of Yankee Stadium.

The veteran slugger has also been linked to the Toronto Blue Jays, who could make incumbent first baseman Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. their designated hitter, and even the Tampa Bay Rays, a team never before considered a big spender in the free-agent market.

Freeman, 32, is coming off an eight-year, $135 million Atlanta pact but is apparently seeking a deal that is richer in years and dollars than the Braves are willing to spend – at least before the lockout shut down negotiations for all parties on Dec. 2.

In 2021, he led the National League with 120 runs scored and then hit five post-season home runs – including the blast that sent the Milwaukee Brewers to defeat in the Division Series.

Freeman has been considered the Face of the Franchise by Braves fans since the 2012 retirement of Chipper Jones, who spent his entire 19-year career with the team en route to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Should the Braves give him a six-year deal, Freeman would be 38 before its conclusion. The financial cost could also pose problems for the Braves, whose payroll placed in the middle of the 30-team pack last season. Many general managers are increasingly reluctant to put so many dollars into a single player, no matter his level of achievement.

According to Cot Sports Contracts, the estimated 2022 Atlanta payroll without Freeman would be $128,750,000. But the value of the team at the start of last season, according to Forbes, was $1.875 billion. And that was before the success of the 2021 campaign, which ended in the Braves’ first world title in 26 years.

Jeff Passan of ESPN reported last month that Liberty Media, the Denver-based communications company that owns the team, announced that the team generated 2021 revenue of $568 million, with $104 million in operating income before debt and amortization (OIBDA) and $20 million in operating income.

The Braves were the first team to open their stadium, Truist Park, to fans after the Covid-19 pandemic subsided. That helped, since the lack of game-day revenue during the 60-day shortened season of 2020 held revenue to $178 million – thanks to losses in both operating income (-$128 million) and OIBDA (-$53 million).

Freeman and Carlos Correa, the former Houston Astros shortstop, are widely considered the top two free agents on the open market. But they are hardly alone, with nearly 300 experienced players still unsigned.

Should Freeman move on, the Braves could sign Anthony Rizzo, most recently with the Yankees, or trade for Atlanta native Matt Olson, who has been made available by the rebuilding Oakland Athletics.

Olson, like Freeman, is a 6’5″ left-handed power hitter with a good glove but is younger and cheaper (he turns 28 later this month). Olson cannot test free agency until after the 2024 season.

Freeman’s departure could also spur Atlanta general manager Alex Anthopoulos to bring back Eddie Rosario or Jorge Soler, who won MVP awards in the NL Championship Series and World Series, respectively, before entering free agency.

Since players, managers, and general managers want to strengthen their teams during the early days of the already-delayed spring training, multiple transactions are expected daily.

Freddie Freeman will find a home fast – but it might just be the same one he’s had for the last 12 years.