Freddie Freeman was the face of the Atlanta Braves for years, but the end of his time in Georgia was a little cold.
A free agent this offseason, Freeman was seeking a lucrative, multi-year deal the Braves clearly were unwilling to give him. After turning down an offer from Freeman’s camp, the Braves elected to swing a blockbuster trade with the Oakland Athletics for Matt Olson, who then promptly signed to a massive extension.
At that point it was more clear than ever that the Braves were moving on from Freeman, who actually wanted to stay put in Atlanta. Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos admitted on “The Athletic Baseball Show” letting Freeman walk rankled the clubhouse as he explained why he gave Olson the quick extension.
“They would embrace him anyways, but he’s here (long-term), he’s one of us and he’s part of this core and there’s no ambiguity,” Anthopoulos said of Olson. “I believe, and the players may agree or not agree, I believe there’s something to that because we need these guys to jell and we need these guys to come together.
“When he knows he’s here to stay and he doesn’t have to worry about ‘I need to have a good season because I have to play year-to-year and where am I going to be,’ and the uncertainty and his teammates feel the same way, if that meant we give up a little more in a trade, if that meant we give up a little bit more in an extension, I don’t know how to quantify it, but I do believe having those things in place at that moment in time considering how emotional it was with the signaling of Freddie not coming back – and the clubhouse was rattled, I think that goes without saying that that’s fair to say – I thought that was important because we have a short period of time to get ready.”
To Anthopoulos’ credit, replacing Freeman with Olson is about as good as you can do in such a situation. The optics obviously aren’t great since they made the trade before Freeman ultimately landed with the Los Angeles Dodgers, but from a pure baseball standpoint it’s clear they were trying to get younger at the position.
Whether that’s right or wrong is up for debate.
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