SAN DIEGO — The All-Star first baseman who desperately needed to remain in Atlanta is in Los Angeles.
The All-Star nearer who badly needed to remain in Los Angeles is in Atlanta.
The opposite All-Star first baseman, whose commerce from Oakland to Atlanta began this chain response, is ecstatic that he and his spouse got the possibility to return to their hometown on a long-term deal.
The enterprise of baseball may be wildly unpredictable, dispassionate and soulless, however hardly ever is it distilled right into a three-way, direct-impact collision over a five-day interval because it was for Freddie Freeman, Kenley Jansen and Matt Olson in mid-March. The aftershocks shall be on full show starting Monday evening in Dodger Stadium with an early-season rematch of final autumn’s Nationwide League Championship Sequence between Los Angeles and Atlanta.
“I can’t imagine he’s a Dodger and never a Courageous,” Los Angeles Supervisor Dave Roberts stated of Freeman one afternoon close to the tip of spring coaching, nonetheless exuberant lower than two weeks after the veteran slugger first tugged on his new uniform.
“We simply naïvely anticipated him to finish up again in Atlanta,” stated Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations. “Clearly, our curiosity was real. However the probability of it occurring, in our minds, was very slim.”
Freeman, 32, is a five-time All-Star, the 2020 winner of the N.L.’s Most Useful Participant Award and a 13-year veteran. He broke in with Atlanta in 2010, grew to become a face of the franchise over the following decade and was beloved by the staff’s followers. He figured he could be a lifetime Courageous. One in every of his older brothers, Andrew, had even transferred to the Atlanta space from Mexico in his job with Honeywell to be near Freddie. His stepsister, Diana, moved there for a similar motive.
“That was one of many locations she might go, and she or he figured that may be enjoyable,” stated Fred Sr., Freddie’s father. “Now she goes to dinner with my oldest son as an alternative of with Freddie.”
The roots had been deep. However Freeman’s free company after Atlanta’s World Sequence championship introduced uncertainty, and the 99-day M.L.B. lockout that stretched from December till March introduced darkness.
When enterprise resumed and the lights flipped again on, Atlanta shocked Freeman and the remainder of baseball by instantly buying Olson, who performed the identical place, from Oakland on the primary Monday of spring coaching. It was a flashing neon signal that the Braves had unexpectedly severed ties with Freeman.
The 2022 M.L.B. Season
A season that was unsure is immediately in full gear.
“It modified the panorama, and we felt like there was an actual likelihood we might make it occur,” Friedman stated of his staff’s pursuit of Freeman.
Two days later, certainly, the Dodgers signed Freeman, who grew up a couple of pop flies from Dodger Stadium in Orange County, Calif., giving him the six-year, $162 million deal that Atlanta had been hesitant to supply.
Two days after that, the Braves signed Jansen, 34, whose 350 saves getting into the season ranked thirteenth all time, to a one-year, $16 million deal.
“I’ll by no means say I needed to return to L.A.; I’ll go wherever I really feel needed,” Jansen stated throughout a weekend interview in San Diego, earlier than including: “That blue shall be in my blood for my entire life. In every single place I am going, folks inform me I’m a Dodger. It’s simply the enterprise facet of it. It didn’t work out for each of us for apparent causes. We each tried arduous, but it surely didn’t occur.”
Had Jansen waited a pair extra days for issues to settle in Los Angeles, it’s attainable he might have remained with the one group he has recognized in baseball. However as soon as he signed, the Dodgers moved on by buying and selling for a brand new nearer, Craig Kimbrel.
“I already waited,” Jansen stated. “I can’t anticipate some time. In some unspecified time in the future, are different groups going to take you severely, or not? Typically in life, you’ve received to see it this fashion: When a superb alternative pops up, are you going to let it go? Or are you going to take it?”
In the meantime, Freeman may need been prepared to signal with Atlanta for lower than he took from the Dodgers. However when that door closed, it slammed shut for good. At his introductory information convention with the Dodgers that week, Freeman strongly implied that the tears shed by Alex Anthopoulos, Atlanta’s president of baseball operations, in discussing his exit had been phony.
“All the things is snug now,” the usually affable Freeman stated throughout a typically terse, late-spring interview. “I’m simply trying ahead now.”
The Dodgers perceive his emotional wounds, and the staff is doing all the pieces it will possibly to make him really feel at house past what that $162 million deal does by itself.
“On daily basis it will get just a little simpler for him to appreciate he’s not with the Braves anymore,” Roberts stated, including: “There’s a enterprise facet of issues and sure issues are out of a participant’s management. Freddie has taken the excessive highway.”
His relationships in Atlanta could also be eternally altered — in a tense set of latest interviews, Atlanta’s Ronald Acuña Jr. expressed happiness that Freeman was gone earlier than saying his phrases had been misconstrued — however Freeman is eagerly anticipating visiting along with his previous teammates this week at Dodger Stadium.
“It’s going to be nice,” Freeman stated. “I can’t wait. Oh, yeah. I get to see all the blokes I gained a championship with final yr. We’re linked eternally. I’m trying ahead to it.”
Now, nonetheless, he’s tasked with wresting the N.L. title away from them. In Los Angeles, Freeman is a part of an enviable roster that features 4 M.V.P. winners: Freeman, Clayton Kershaw, Mookie Betts and Cody Bellinger. Roberts stated “he’s going to assist us win a championship” and, on the very least, rival pitchers will want nerves of metal.
As for his or her surprising connection by way of the collection of spring transactions, Freeman stated he didn’t know Olson “in any respect” and actually didn’t know Jansen, both. Jansen stated he knew Freeman sufficient to say whats up and “that’s it.”
Earlier than Freeman or Jansen had found out the place they may go, the quick-working Braves signed Olson to an eight-year contract extension value $168 million solely 24 hours after buying and selling for him.
“It was like the celebrities aligned,” Olson stated. “It was the right storm. To get the possibility to have a long-term choice within the metropolis I grew up in, becoming a member of the World Sequence champions, it was a fairly simple alternative for my spouse and I.”
His new teammates have been welcoming, he stated, and, upon returning to Atlanta for a season-opening homestand, he stated he felt no chilly shoulders from followers upset about Freeman’s departure.
“I used to be pleasantly shocked with the way it went,” Olson stated.
It was additionally a homecoming of types for Jansen. Rising up in Curaçao, the Braves had been Jansen’s staff due to Atlanta’s Curaçaoan heart fielder, Andruw Jones. Jansen stated he was completely happy to be taking part in alongside one other countryman, Ozzie Albies, and his heat smile is acquainted, even when his new uniform isn’t, no less than not but.
“He’s a giant a part of this staff,” Supervisor Brian Snitker stated. “You wouldn’t know that he hasn’t been right here 5 or 6 years once you see him within the clubhouse.”
Jansen, his spouse, Gianni, and their three kids will proceed to make the Los Angeles space their everlasting house, the nearer stated. Up to now, he has tried to not suppose an excessive amount of about this week’s early-season homecoming. However he’s glad to get it out of the way in which ahead of later.
“When the time comes, I’m most likely going to be emotional,” he stated. “I’ve received to ensure I management it.”
For many of the previous decade, displayed above his locker within the Dodgers clubhouse has been a flag of the state of California, modified to “Kenley-Fornia.” It’s going to now go into his house gymnasium “as a memento,” he stated.
When previous roads come to an finish and new begins start, some souvenirs may be good.
