WASHINGTON – The wrist injury that Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman seemed certain a few days ago would not land him on the disabled list, has done precisely that.
Freeman was placed on the 15-day DL Tuesday – retroactive to June 18 — with a right-wrist contusion. It’s an injury that’s not considered serious, but is nagging enough to warrant a move so the Braves could let Freeman’s wrist heal and so they weren’t short-handed facing the National League East-leading Washington Nationals in a series starting Tuesday.
The third-place Braves were two games behind Washington entering the three-game series.
First baseman/corner outfielder Joey Terdoslavich was recalled from Triple-A Gwinnett to take Freeman’s roster spot and was in uniform Tuesday. Kelly Johnson and Chris Johnson, along with possibly Terdoslavich, will fill in at first base until Freeman returns.
Chris Johnson was in the lineup at first base Tuesday against Nationals starter Stephen Strasburg.
An MRI exam of Freeman’s wrist Monday revealed no broken bones, but the Braves decided to have him rest and let the soreness and inflammation calm down for a couple of weeks rather than risk having it develop into something that could linger all season.
The DL assignment is retroactive to Thursday, the day after Freeman last played. He’ll be eligible to return July 3, the opener of a weekend series against the Phillies at Turner Field.
Freeman hit .324 (24-for-74) with seven homers and 18 RBIs in his past 19 games, posting a .662 slugging percentage in that span. He hit .313 in his past 42 games with 20 extra-base hits, 31 RBIs and a .383 OBP and .534 slugging percentage.
“He’s your best hitter, and you’re taking him out of the middle of your lineup,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “But we’ll figure it out. We’ve got guys we’ll match up, we’ve got Chris Johnson and Kelly Johnson can play a little bit over there. Those guys get a little opportunity to play now.
“We didn’t have him the whole weekend series against the Mets and we won (all) three. So we’ll figure it out. We’ll be a little creative from that spot.”
The Braves, sans Freeman, swept a three-game series against the Mets that ended Sunday and were a half-game behind the second-pace Mets before Tuesday.
He injured the wrist on a swing late in a June 13, 11-inning win against the Mets in New York. Freeman said he could barely swing a bat without severe pain the next day, but he didn’t confide to team officials how much he was hurting and continued to play.
He got a cortisone injection in the wrist after leaving Wednesday’s game against the Red Sox, and Freeman was told it could take between 48 and 72 hours for the medicine to take effect. He hoped to be back in the lineup Friday or Saturday, but his recovery didn’t go as quickly as he’d hoped, then stalled altogether during the weekend.
Freeman saw the Braves’ hand specialist Sunday, had an MRI Monday on the Braves’ day off, and wasn’t on the team’s charter flight Monday evening to Washington.
“Just a contusion,” Gonzalez said. “We’ve had a few of those (hand or wrist contusions), and it takes a while. I think Terdo had one that lasted a while; I hope this one doesn’t. Chris Johnson had one, as well. So right now we’re just DL’ing him retroactive to Thursday’s game, and hopefully we can get him back sooner than later.”
When asked on Friday whether the DL had been discussed, Freeman said, “No, that’s not an option. I won’t allow that.” But that was before his recovery stalled.
The Nationals will certainly not be disappointed to miss him this week: Freeman has a .340 career average against Washington, including a sizzling .455 (45-for-99) with 16 extra-base hits (four homers) and a .697 slugging percentage in 25 games against them since the beginning of the 2014 season.
He is 13-for-25 (.520) with five doubles in six games against them this season, though the Nationals won five of those.
Freeman is 12-for-28 (.429) with three homers against Strasburg, with nine RBIs, six walks and a .500 OBP and .821 slugging percentage.
