The Braves placed first baseman Freddie Freeman on the 15-day disabled list Sunday morning with a strained right oblique muscle and he’s not happy about it.
Freeman thinks he can continue to play through the injury, which he suffered during workouts last Sunday. He notes that he was on deck when Justin Upton hit a walk-off home run to defeat the Cubs on Saturday night. And he said he didn’t appreciate having to learn about the decision after the club already made it.
“I found out this morning when I walked in here,” Freeman said.
Freeman was still steaming as he vented to teammates just before he took the field to shag balls during batting practice.
Freeman, 23, was 7 for 17 with a home run and five RBIs through the first five games. Freeman winced and grabbed his side after hitting a single in the eighth inning Saturday night.
“His last at-bat you could see it twitch a little bit, so we decided to ‘DL’ him,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said.
Braves general manager Frank Wren said the need to place Freeman on the disabled list was “pretty apparent” after doctors examined him late Saturday.
“Obliques are going to be a couple weeks at minimum and, if you are really lucky, you can get a player back right after the ‘DL’ stint,” he said. “But it’s not shortened any. Especially this early in the season, we are not going to take a chance to turn what could be a two to three week (injury) into a six-to-eight week by tearing that oblique area.”
Wren said the team considers the desire of players when it comes to injuries and appreciates that Freeman wants to play “but sometimes we have to protect players from themselves.”
Wren said it’s standard for the team to inform players of roster decisions when they first arrive in the clubhouse.
“This is not one of those situations where we want to lose him for the whole first half (of the season) by letting him go out and tear that oblique area and then we are dealing with a much different injury,” Wren said. “We think we caught it early enough where he should be back in two to three weeks. But if we let it go any further it might change.
Freeman said he also was upset because the Braves won’t allow him to travel with the team while he’s on the disabled list. Wren said it’s club policy for injured players not to travel so they aren’t tempted to engage in baseball activities that can worsen their injury.
To take Freeman’s roster spot the Braves promoted infielder Blake DeWitt from Triple-A Gwinnett. The plan is for Chris Johnson to fill in for Freeman at first base with Juan Francisco at third and DeWitt available off the bench.
DeWitt has played in 422 major-league games, including 18 games with the Cubs last season. For his career he’s hit .257 with 21 home runs and 135 RBIs in 1,116 at-bats.
“The primary concern was having another left-handed bat off the bench,” Wren said. “Blake had a real good spring for us and at the end of the spring he was swinging the bat well.”
