LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – Freddie Freeman surely knows red flags went up in Braves Country when general manager John Coppolella announced Monday that the team’s best hitter would miss some batting practice early in spring training as he continued his recovery from a 2015 wrist injury.
But Freeman, after reporting to spring training Tuesday, said the plan is precautionary, that he’s had not setbacks, that he expects to get in plenty of Grapefruit League games and be ready to play every game when the season begins.
“I feel pretty good,” the big first baseman said. “What Coppy said yesterday is what we’re going to do. We’re going to take it slow. For me it’s day to day, there’s some good days and some bad days. So right now we’re just going to try to take it easy and just not go out there and try to hit (Braves reliever) David Carpenter’s fastball and all that kind of stuff.
“We’re just going to try and take it easy, take some dry swings, some tee work, some flips, and we’ll see where we’re at.”
The Braves begin full-squad workouts Thursday, and Freeman said he would take part in all drills except batting practice, which he hopes to begin soon. He was asked about his frustration level over the wrist still affecting him in a new baseball year.
“I think if anybody knows me, it’s high,” he said. “I just wish I could come in here and say I’ll be hitting right away, but I just want to ease into it. From talking to Coppy and (president of baseball operations) John Hart, we’ve got a good plan, so we’re going to stick to it, and hopefully it gives me the best chance to play all 162 games (in the regular season).”
While frustrated about the wrist and not being ready to hit, Freeman, 26, sounded upbeat about the Braves and his future with the team, which has overhauled its farm system during a rebuilding project that began after the 2014 season. Most of Freeman’s former teammates were traded or not re-signed.
Among the group of players that got long-term contract extensions before or early in the 2015 season, the only ones still with the team are Freeman, whose franchise-record eight-year, $135 million extension runs through 2021, and pitcher Julio Teheran.
“What the Johns (Coppolella, Hart, team president John Schuerholz) are doing up in the front office, it’s just setting this organization up for a very long time, and I’m excited to be here. It’s also telling to me about how this organization feels about me, for me to stay around this long and for them to give me the contract. Ultimately I just want to live up to that and be out here every single day and hopefully I’m a part of this future for a long time.”
Taking dry swings without a baseball, hitting balls off a batting tee or balls flipped underhanded to him – that’s all the bat work that Freeman has done since September. And that only began New Year’s Eve, when he swung a bat without pain for the first in nearly seven months.
After playing all 162 games and nearly every inning in 2015, Freeman missed 44 games last season and had two stints on the disabled list and multiple injections in his right wrist and hand. Still, the pain lingered until offseason rest coupled with a late-December injection finally allowed him to swing without discomfort.
But when he swung on consecutive days, it was apparent there was still a ways to go.
“No, there’s no setback,” Freeman replied. “A setback would be something seriously wrong, and there’s nothing seriously wrong. It’s just when you’re coming off a wrist injury like I had last year, you just want to make sure everything’s OK. I’m just going to ease into it because I want to be out there every game this year.”
When someone asked if it might be three weeks before he’s ready to hit every day and play, Freeman said, “Three weeks is a long time, I don’t see me waiting that long. I just want to get out there and get going. Once I get to the point where I can hit every single day with no problems, I think that’s going to be the big test that I’ve got to get over. It’s all fine and dandy when you hit a couple of times a week in the offseason, but all of a sudden you’ve got to come in here and swing 100, 200 times a day, so that’s going to be the big test.”
He hoped to be ready when spring training began, but he and the Braves agreed it best to be cautious and listen to his body when soreness returned following consecutive days of limited swings.
“I’ve got seven weeks here, so I’ll be ready to go,” Freeman said. “Ultimately for my health long-term we didn’t want any lingering effects from the wrist. We just wanted to make sure that I come into camp and just get everything going, because I haven’t hit back-to-back-to-back days, I’ve only hit back-to-back days.”
Coppolella, in announcing the spring-training plan Monday, said, “He’s our best player, he’s our best hitter, he’s a huge part of our team. And we just want to make sure we get it right.”
After hitting .303 with 117 extra-base hits, 187 RBIs and a .390 OBP in 1,158 at-bats during the 2013-2014 seasons, Freeman hit .276 with 45 extra-base hits, 66 RBIs and a .370 OBP in 416 at-bats in 2015.
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