In the hours before Game 4 of the 2021 National League Championship Series, the Dodgers thought they discovered a hole in Atlanta first baseman Freddie Freeman’s swing. For the Dodgers, trailing in the series and desperate to subdue the Braves, any blemish on Freeman qualified as a godsend. He tormented them with the expansiveness of his plate coverage, the resourcefulness of his approach and the potency of his swing. “There’s damage everywhere,” pitching coach Mark Prior explained — even in the supposed holes.
Julio Urías learned as much that afternoon. He tried to exploit Freeman’s purported weakness in the third inning at Dodger Stadium. Urías located a 92-mph fastball at the top of the strike zone, in the precise place, at the precise time, when the Dodgers believed it might fool the 2020 National League MVP. Urías watched, helpless, as Freeman hammered the pitch over the right-field fence.
“I feel like every time we had something, even just a little sliver of a hole, he’d cover it,” Prior said. “He just made it really hard.”
Those memories, still stinging, were only part of the reason for the giddy mood at Camelback Ranch on Thursday morning. The news of Freeman’s six-year, $162 million agreement with the Dodgers had broken overnight. Freeman underwent a physical in Los Angeles on Thursday. The team expected to introduce him during a news conference on Friday.
The impending arrival of Freeman juiced a club already favored to represent the National League in this autumn’s World Series. His departure from the Braves, who dethroned Los Angeles last October, also provided relief to the Dodgers pitchers, catchers and coaches who Freeman has vexed over the years.
“You can’t get him out, really,” said Clayton Kershaw, who has been banging heads, left-on-left, with Freeman for a decade. “I feel like he’s one of those guys where you get him out, and you feel like he got himself out, you know?”