Freddie Freeman Has a Broken Wrist
Well, this sucks. In the midst of a season that looked like it was going to take the Braves first baseman from one of the better hitters in baseball to one of the elite players in the game, Freddie Freeman has hit a roadblock. Or rather, been hit by one. An Aaron Loup fastball in the fifth inning of last night’s game got Freeman in the arm, and today, it’s been reported that an MRI revealed a broken wrist, which will sideline the star first baseman for at least the next couple of months.
Source: #Braves’ Freeman has a fractured left wrist. Expectation is that he will miss at least eight weeks.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) May 18, 2017
This is obviously a huge blow to the Braves, as Freeman was carrying the team on his back. Even with Freeman running a 204 wRC+ to this point, the Braves still had just a 94 wRC+, and without a real backup first baseman on the team, it’s not entirely clear who will replace him in the line-up. The Braves official site lists Jace Peterson as the team’s backup 1B, but he’s now playing third while Adonis Garcia is on the DL. Nick Markakis has played some first base before, but the team isn’t exactly overflowing with outfielders as it is, so then you’re looking at someone like Danny Santana replacing the team’s best hitter for two months.
While the Braves probably weren’t going to be contenders this year, this is a huge blow to their chances to even hang around for the rest of the summer. For a team looking to infuse some optimism into the fanbase with the opening of a new stadium, this is pretty close to the worst news they could receive.
Hopefully, for the Braves and the game’s sake, Freeman comes back to full health for the last few months of the year. Freeman’s at-bats were becoming appointment viewing, and the summer just got a little less interesting for baseball as a whole, and a lot less interesting for fans in Atlanta.
Dave is the Managing Editor of FanGraphs.
I would think that the Braves give up on 2017, trade any expiring deals they have, and try to get another early draft pick for next season.
Might as well punt now and give their young guys a chance to play.
Their FAs-to-be: Brandon Phillips, Bartolo Colon, Jaime Garcia, Jason Motte, Kurt Suzuki, Emilio Bonifacio, Eric O’Flaherty, Josh Collmenter.
I don’t know that you’re getting anything for anyone in that group.
could you deal Kemp? At least he is hitting.
If you eat enough of the contract, then probably.
**Insert joke about Bartolo Colon volunteering to eat the contract**
Why do people think that this pitch was intentional? More than anything, it looks like freeman moved his hands into the pitch.
Edit: Didn’t mean that it was implied here, I was reading comments about it around other places.
It’s not that it was intentional, it’s the fact that this was the eighth time a Toronto pitcher has hit a Braves hitter in this series. Braves fans are just pissed off.
That, I’d somewhat understand. People are trying to make the argument that this was in some way intentional.
No one is happy when a player on the team they root for gets hurt. Especially one hitting as well as Freeman is on a team that otherwise has little going for it. But that doesn’t mean that Loup was in some way trying to do this (which is what I was referring to).
It wasn’t intentional, but I’m pretty pissed. If you want to go inside to back a batter off the plate, you should be content with going inside at the waist or lower. Freeman loads his hands pretty high. So that pitch was up and in on Freddie. I don’t care that it wasn’t intentional. When you don’t have command of your fastball, as Loup clearly does not, you have no business going up and in against a hitter.
Its fine to be mad your best player got hurt, but it’s part of a sport. Players get injured. It’s no one’s fault. Every pitcher hits batters. Even the best ones. Acting like Loup’s command is to blame is shallow.
Loup’s may have decent control, but his command is lousy. Have you ever watched him pitch? It’s either where he wants or he misses by three feet. Few MLB pitchers miss as badly when they miss as Aaron Loup.
Everyone. is. on. the. DL.
Time for Rio Ruiz?
Question for Szymborski: How much better will Markakis be if he goes to 1B?
There’ll be a brawl tonight
Toronto sure seems to be involved a lot. EIGHT HBPs in the series?!
Freddie Replacement Drop Polanco ADD Pujols, Smoak, Morrison, or Bour?
12team H2H
Gonna be a fight tonight. Not saying there should be one or not, but I will give 2 to 1 odds to anyone who thinks the benches will not clear
I’m not trying to start something about Loup hitting Freeman, but more generally … Loup does have the highest career HBP rate of any pitcher with 1,000 batters faced. And he hits LHBs four times as often as righties — one out of every 21 batters. Even if there’s no apparent intent, is there a point at which the league should take action against such a high HBP rate?
It just sucks that Loup hits so many guys. It hurts his team and it obviously hurts the players (Freeman).
Wow, he is equally likely to hit a LHB with a pitch as he is to walk him.
Not to speak ill of the dead, but if the league didn’t do much against Yordano Ventura and his habit of intentionally plunking people whenever he pleased, they’re not going to do anything about a guy who is doing it unintentionally, regardless of how often he’s doing it. At most, they might mention to the Blue Jays front office that “hey, you might want to do something about this guy’s command before he actually cripples someone.”
What disappointing news. Freeman was one of the few bright spots for the Braves this year and off to an incredible start. Wrist injuries seem to linger and sap power for a while after coming off the DL. Might as well take their time with him and not rush him back. Wishing him the best.