Dodgers Interview: Freddie’s embracing expectations for 2026

LOS ANGELES — Freddie Freeman has seen his share of offseasons, and after the nearly catastrophic ankle injury of 2024, this one was blissfully free of rehab drama. Instead, it was just a time to look back with pride at the Dodgers’ back-to-back World Series wins, and more importantly, look ahead to a season that is just around the corner.

“Oh, it’s happening,” Freeman said, smiling. “Every time you get to FanFest, it’s right around the corner. I’m excited. Offseason’s been good. No rehabbing, so that’s nice. Nice to have a normal offseason. I’m looking forward to getting to Arizona in a couple weeks.”

When the conversation turned to the latest wave of roster upgrades, Freeman was stoked. “It injects energy into us,” he said, “to go out and keep getting the best players year in and year out even when you’re winning the World Series. It’s refreshing. It really shows you that our organization, our front office, our ownership group wants to win every single year.”

He talked through the way it landed in real time, first one move, then another. “When you sign Edwin (Diaz), you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s great,’” Freeman said. “And then all of a sudden Kyle (Tucker) comes along a couple weeks ago and you’re just like, ‘Jeez, OK.’ It’s exciting. Talking about it makes me smile. It’s great for the fans, L.A., to come out and be able to watch really good baseball night in and night out.”

Does it surprise him anymore? Freeman laughed before he answered. “No, not really,” he said. Then he explained why it feels different from a team simply spending big. “They want to win. They care about it a lot. They care about their fans, the product on the field, the product, what we have inside, redoing everything we’ve had in there,” Freeman said. “I’m looking around, there’s some more construction going on. They care. They care about this building, this field, this organization, this city. So they’re doing everything they can to win.”

For Freeman, that investment also connects to what comes with wearing the uniform every day, because the Dodgers don’t get anyone’s casual best effort. He said the group understands that pressure and doesn’t run from it. “That’s what you’re getting when you put on this uniform,” Freeman said. “You’re expected to win when you put on a Dodgers uniform. We know that. We embrace it. We like it.”

He described the target on their backs as a sign of what they’ve built. “That means we got a good thing going on around here when everyone’s trying to beat us,” Freeman said. “We love everything about that. And then when you keep getting the best players on your team, they really want to take you down. So it’s going to be fun.”

The day-to-day message inside the clubhouse stays consistent, he said, even with the noise outside. “Our message is the same,” Freeman said. “You do your work, you grind, you come out here, you’ll see us six, seven hours before the game doing our work, our routines. We prep and try and take care of what we can control, and just trying to block out the noise and become like we have been the last couple years, a great unit.”

He also credited the chemistry of the room, and the fact that the team has become a destination. “Chemistry is off the charts here,” Freeman said. “We built something really special around here and everybody wants to be a part of it.”

When he was asked about the ripple effect of Shohei Ohtani’s contract structure and the way it opened flexibility for the Dodgers to keep stacking talent, Freeman said it’s one thing to talk about it, and another thing to watch the organization actually follow through. “I think so,” Freeman said. “I don’t think anybody could really wrap your mind about what that would mean. It’s one thing to be talked about and done, to structure a contract like that, but then to have the organization, the ownership group do what they’re saying.”

He then pointed the praise toward the people making the moves, and he made sure to include the clubhouse fit as part of it. “Hats off to Mark [Walter], the Guggenheim ownership group, Andrew [Friedman], Brandon [Gomes], all of them in the front office,” Freeman said. “It’s not just getting the best players. It’s also getting the right people, too, that fit in our clubhouse. And they’ve done an amazing job.”

On Kyle Tucker specifically, Freeman sounded like a guy who’s been seeing him across the field for years and now gets to see him every day. “Kyle’s great,” Freeman said. “You play against him four straight years as an All-Star. One of the best players in our game, what he can do, hitting, running, stealing bases. His glove’s there, too. So it’s just going to fit perfectly.”

Then he started thinking like a first baseman who knows how lineup construction can tilt a whole series. “Left, right, left, right, left, right,” Freeman said. “However Doc wants to manage our lineup, that’s not going to be fun to get through.”

He also acknowledged the human side of joining a new team with huge expectations. “It’s always hard to come to a new team with that kind of contract and be comfortable,” Freeman said. “I think we got the right people to help him get his feet on the ground and run.”

Freeman also addressed why he won’t be playing in the WBC this time, and he kept it limited while making clear it isn’t about his body. “There’s no health,” Freeman said. “I feel great. Body feels great. Canada knows it’s a personal reason, and you guys will probably hear about it in a month or two.” He added, “They’re very supportive. I needed to be close to California. That’s all I’ll say.”

Near the end, he was asked about what it will feel like around the clubhouse without Clayton Kershaw there every day, and Freeman answered it with the sort of small detail only teammates bring up. “They showed my walk-off home run and they showed Kersh running on the field like a 5-year-old looking for candy,” Freeman said. “I’m going to miss it.”

He said the public résumé is obvious, but the daily presence is what hits hardest. “Everyone talks about first-ballot Hall of Fame pitcher, what he meant to this organization,” Freeman said, “but the day in and day out inside that clubhouse, what we get to see and have with him, and the joy he brings.”

Then he started listing the moments that live behind closed doors. “Him singing shirtless in the weight room at the top of his lungs,” Freeman said. “Those are the things that you’ll miss more, for me.”

Freeman said it’s strange when icons stop being fixtures in the room, because it changes the feel even for veterans. “It’s weird seeing Dodger legends not walk around the clubhouse anymore,” he said. “It’s definitely going to be weird not have number 22 walking around, but we’ll see him here at the ring ceremony.”

And with that, Freeman was back where he started. FanFest means it’s close. The work is coming. He sounded ready for it.

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