Freddie Freeman’s return to Atlanta this weekend for the first time since signing a six-year, $162 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers has reminded us of the dark side of sports.
Sports are a beautiful thing that can bring cities and nations together, even through the darkest times, but Freeman’s emotional return to Atlanta is the perfect reminder that sports are a business above all.
Freeman has been very open with the media about how his return to Truist Park has been extremely hard, having to step out of his first press conference to gather his emotions and fighting back tears as he stood in front of a sold-out crowd in Atlanta for the first time since losing Game 5 of the World Series on Oct. 31 of last year before ultimately closing out the series in Houston two days later.
To the surprise of no one, Freeman was greeted with a standing ovation when receiving his World Series ring before the game and before his first at-bat Friday.
“I don’t know all of the emotions, it’s hard to put into words. I’m just happy to be back,” the 32-year old first baseman said Friday. “I still love the Braves organization with all of my heart. That will never change.”
So if it was so hard for Braves fans to see Freeman in another uniform and even harder for him to leave, why did the Braves let him walk?
Business is the answer and will always be the answer.
Freeman spent the first 12 years of his MLB career with the Atlanta Braves and capped his tenure off with the franchise’s first World Series championship since 1995.
With a young core of players starting to prosper like Ronald Acuna Jr., Dansby Swanson, Austin Riley, Ozzie Albies and Max Fried, Atlanta made the decision to let the face of their franchise test free agency and chose to trade for, and later sign to an eight-year, $168 million extension, younger replacement in Matt Olson.
Olson is a very similar player to Freeman. He is a tall, smooth-swinging first baseman that produces on both offense and defense. The biggest difference is Olson happens to be four years younger.
The move blindsided Freeman after he and the Braves seemed to be close to a deal before the lockout shut down negotiations. His home since he was drafted in 2007 had moved on from him, likely because giving him the money he was demanding could handcuff the team’s success if his production slowed down as he aged while the rest of the team would be entering its prime years.
You can tell it still doesn’t sit right with Freeman.
“There is, for me, nothing to close,” Freeman said Friday. “The regret question is a whole different side of the story that I’m not here to talk about … because if I got into that we’d be here a long time and that emotion would change, big time.
“I think the people that know me, (they) know a little bit about what happened a few months ago, so I’m going to leave it at that.”
Regardless of the reason why, or who is to blame, Freeman was then tasked the decision of where he was going to play the next chapter of his career.
He chose to join a stacked Dodger team that is about an hour away from where he grew up in Fountain Valley, Calif.
The move has worked out well for both sides. Freeman is hitting .304 with eight home runs and 45 RBI so far this season while Olson is hitting exactly at his career mark while hitting 10 homers and driving in 39 runs.
As time passes, the sting for Freeman and Atlanta fans will wear off, but the wound surfaced again for both sides as Freeman returned to the city for the first time over the weekend.
I am not here to say the Braves made the wrong decision — we won’t know the answer to that for a few years — but this weekend definitely makes you wonder if this offseason was the right time to move on from Freeman.
Could the two sides have agreed to a short-term, expensive salary per season deal that pleased both sides and let the Braves re-assess the situation in a couple years? The answer is yes, but the business side of sports reared its ugly head.
I don’t know if Freeman in a Dodgers’ uniform will ever sit right with the fans in Atlanta, or for anyone, but the return this weekend is the first step in healing process that feels like a long one for both Freeman and the city of Atlanta.