Steve Webb
LOS ANGELES — Okay, the preseason is over. Starting tonight, it’s about to get real. No offense to the Dodgers’ first three opponents, the Dodgers’ 7-2 record through those games, while nice enough, is hardly a measure of where the team is at right now. A much better test of the Dodgers’ mettle will be the series starting tonight, against the Dodgers’ opponent in the last two NLCS: the Atlanta Braves. However, the biggest subplot of the series will be how Dodgers’ new star Freddie Freeman will react in his first encounter with his former club.
Freddie Freeman in Dodger Blue
Freddie Freeman made no secret of wanting to stay with the Braves during the past off-season. And, when the Braves chose to move on from their biggest star, you could see that Freeman was genuinely hurt by the decision. “To be honest, I was blindsided,” Freeman said of the move. “I think every emotion came across. I was hurt.”
Clearly, Freeman has a lot of history with the team. “I haven’t envisioned playing anywhere else because I haven’t gotten to that point yet,” Freeman said prior to the move . “I’ve put on this uniform since 2007. I got to put on a Braves uniform with the Gulf Coast League team. It’s all I’ve ever known.”
But when the Braves made a trade for the A’s star first baseman Matt Olson (who’s starting the season on a crazy tear), the writing was on the wall. And what pushed Freeman in the Dodgers’ direction was something that the team had nothing to do with: the lure of coming home, and a discussion with his father Fred. “We were talking a couple weeks ago,” Freeman’s father, Fred, recalled in a interview last month, “and he said, ‘Dad, if I’m not a Brave, what do you think? Should I go back East?”
“Freddie,” Fred replied, “if you’re not going to be a Brave, I want you home.’”
“So do I,” Freddie said.
Acuna’s comments blow up in his face
And that was that. The deal with the rival Dodgers happened quickly afterward. Adding fuel to the fire was the sense among the Atlanta fans (and some players) that it was Freeman who had abandoned Atlanta and not vice versa. This was especially clear in a rather blunt interview that Braves star Ronald Acuna Jr. in the wake of Freeman’s departure. Speaking in Spanish to Dominican Republic-based sports reporter Yancen Pujols late Wednesday night on Instagram Live, was asked what he’d miss most about Freeman.
“Me?” Acuna responded to the question. “Nothing.”
Acuna was then asked if he had been close with Freeman over the past four seasons with the Braves, who are coming off a World Series championship.
“We were close in that we shared the same stadium,” Acuna said, “but we had a lot of, how do you say …”
“Lots of clashes,” Pujols interrupted.
“Lots of clashes,” Acuna said, nodding.
Though Acuna is on a rehab assignment and won’t be available for this series, his comments send a message to Freeman. Clearly, they want to prove that Freeman was not as vital a part to their recent successes as he thinks he is.
And we’ll just have to see about that….
