Freddie Freeman can finally breathe or at least try.
It turns out that the Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman and World Series MVP played with more than a severely sprained ankle. Jeff Passan of ESPN reported on Thursday that Freeman had also broken the costal cartilage in his sixth rib.
Nothing was going to stop Freeman from playing in the postseason, not even an injury that should have sidelined him for months. His father, Fred, worried as he watched his son in physical pain.
“I actually told him to stop,” Fred told Passan. “I said, ‘Freddie, this is not worth it. I know you love baseball. I love baseball. But it’s not worth what you’re going through.’ And he looked at me like I was crazy, and he said, ‘Dad, I’m never going to stop.'”
Not only did Freeman continue to play through the pain, he put on one of the best postseason performances in franchise history.
Freeman started Game 1 of the Division Series against San Diego without publicly divulging his broken rib cartilage. His presence in the lineup was enough. San Diego had no idea of the pain Freeman endured with each swing of his compact, powerful left-handed bat. His right ankle felt like it might give out at any moment, and each missed pitch sent a sharp, silent ache through his side.
“It only hurts when I miss,” Freeman told his father. “So I’m just going to have to stop missing.”
In the series opener, Freeman, with his core wrapped in kinesiology tape for stability, delivered two singles. His limp hinted at an ankle issue, drawing attention away from his real pain source: his rib. After four painful misses at the plate, his symptoms worsened as Los Angeles claimed Game 1 but then lost the next two to the Padres.
“Every day,” Dodgers hitting coach Aaron Bates said, “I would ask: ‘How’s your ankle? How’s your rib? How’s your finger? How’s your brain?'”
The Dodgers won the NLDS in five games and moved on to the NLCS where Freeman missed a couple of games. His teammates had it all under control and won the series in six games.
On Oct. 24, just before Game 1 of a highly anticipated World Series, Freeman and the Dodgers’ staff identified a mental cue to help him recover the power missing from his playoff swings. The approach was to imagine striding more toward first base, which prevented him from leaning forward too much. This subtle adjustment encouraged a more upright posture, allowing Freeman to better handle fastballs — a pitch that had given him trouble during the NLCS, where he went just 2-for-13 against them.
The Yankees had no idea what Freeman unlocked until he walked them off with a grand slam in Game 1. He tied a World Series record with 12 RBIs and secured his status as a Dodgers legend.
