Freeman may not like it, but rest will be required for Braves' star
ATLANTA -- The first series of the season isn't even over, and already, drama is brewing in the Braves clubhouse --or at least a good-natured difference of opinions between manager Fredi Gonzalez and Freddie Freeman when it comes to the All-Star first baseman's usage.
"(Gonzalez) can ask all he wants. I'm not coming out," a smiling Freeman said before Monday's opener against the Nationals. "He's going to have to force me out the lineup, because my goal every year is to play 162 and that's what I'm going to try to do this year and if he asks to take me out I'll be in his office trying to beg him not to."
Said Gonzalez of those forthcoming visits: "There will be days he has his boo-boo lip."
Expectedly, coming off a season in which he played a career-low 118 games, Freeman wants to return to the iron man ways that led to an average of 153 games from 2011-14, capped by appearing in all 162 in '14. But more than anything, his time away showed his worth to the Braves last season.
In the 43 games he missed with the wrist injury from June 18-July 24 and Aug. 4-18, the Braves scored two runs or less 43 times and hit 23 home runs in that span. But in the 118 games that Freeman played in, Atlanta had one less games of two or fewer runs and smacked 74 of its homers.
Keeping Freeman available for the entire season is simply paramount.
"The days of 162 and every inning and every at-bat, every swing, I think we need to taper down a little bit, because we want him to play the whole season," Gonzalez said. "We don't want one of our best players to sit out for 2 1/2 months and if we can give him a day off combined with and off day and do that for longevity, we'll do that."
If it's a cautious approach, it's not necessarily tied to concerns with the right wrist that caused Freeman so much trouble in a 2015 in which he hit .276/.370/.471 (his lowest figures across the board since '12) along with 18 home runs and 66 RBI, his fewest of any of his six full-time MLB seasons.
Of his eight hits this spring, four of them were home runs, and Freeman provided another to open the season as he drove a Max Scherzer to dead-center field in his first at-bat against the Nationals right-hander. He went 1-for-3 and was hit by a pitch in Atlanta's 4-3 loss.
"That's all I care about was getting through (spring) healthy," Freeman said. "I got a lot of at-bats, about 50 plate appearances. I feel good, 100 percent, and that's all I can ask for in spring training.
"That's the main key that we were looking for in spring training. I think that medical plan that we had in spring training really worked out for me and following it to the T really helped me get to where I am right now."
And, if Freeman has his way, that won't include sitting the bench, even if his manager insists.
Follow Cory McCartney on Twitter @coryjmccartney and Facebook. His book, 'Tales from the Atlanta Braves Dugout: A Collection of the Greatest Braves Stories Ever Told,' comes out April 12, 2016., and 'The Heisman Trophy: The Story of an American Icon and Its Winners' will be released Nov. 1, 2016.
