Freddie Freeman could return to the Braves’ lineup as early as July 30 in Philadelphia.
He’d inched closer to full health before Tuesday’s game against the Dodgers, taking dry swings at 75-percent strength Sunday and hitting balls off a tee and tossed to him Monday. He took batting practice Tuesday.
“I felt good yesterday, and today I was able to carry it over,” Freeman said after batting practice. “The swing feels good. The hand feels good, so it’s good signs so far. … Today I had (no soreness). I actually felt better today than I did yesterday, so it’s starting to feel almost to 100 percent.”
Freeman will go to Orlando on Tuesday night and work on endurance and strength in his right forearm. He said the tentative plan is to return to Atlanta on July 27, play with Triple-A Gwinnett the next two days and join the Braves in Philadelphia a day before the trade deadline July 30.
“I’m pretty pumped,” Freeman said. “Now it’s just the waiting game. I’m going to go through the rehab process.”
His prognosis turned almost a complete 180 turnaround in the past few days. Braves president of baseball operations John Hart said last week that Freeman’s injury was worse than the team originally thought, and he may be out until after the first week of August.
But he got another MRI late last week, revealing fluid in his wrist that doctors then removed.
“Getting the fluid out of there, obviously that was the key because my hand feels pretty good right now,” Freeman said.
Freeman has been out since June 17 with what began as a bone bruise in his right wrist. Entering Tuesday’s game against the Dodgers, he’d missed 27 games. The Braves were 12-15 while scoring only 2.8 runs per game in that span.
They hit .296 with 5.3 runs per game in Freeman’s last 18 games.
Freeman appeared in all 162 games last season and set a franchise record with 1,449 innings played — which also led the majors.
“I was like a kid waiting for Christmas yesterday (before hitting balls),” he said. “You just don’t know how it’s going to feel because I usually feel pretty good when I’m sitting there and not doing much until I grip something. That’s when it started to feel the worst. And when I was getting ready to hit, playing catch felt fine, everything felt fine. But I was pretty nervous picking up a bat and when I did the dry swings it felt pretty good, so it’s getting better and better each day and that’s all I can ask for.”
