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March 19: Robert Murray of FanSided (via Twitter) has released the year-by-year breakdown of Freeman’s contract. The six-year contract is evenly divided, with Freeman earning $27 million per season from 2022 to 2027. $12MM in deferred money in 2025–2027 and $7MM in deferred money in 2022–2024 are included in the deal.
March 18: By declaring that Freeman has inked a six-year contract that extends through the 2027 campaign, the Dodgers have officially announced the signing. On Twitter, Mark Feinsand of MLB.com reports that a portion of the $162 million guarantee, worth $57 million, is being postponed and will be paid between 2028 and 2040. Feinsand suggests doing so to get the contract’s real present value closer to $140 million.
March 16: It has been reported that the Dodgers have agreed to terms with Freddie Freeman on a $162 million, six-year contract. The client of Excel Sports Management secures the sixth guaranteed year he has been pursuing, positioning himself to strengthen a roster that is already strong.
Los Angeles’ combined wRC+ of.251/.339/.446 last season, excluding pitchers, tied them for third place as a team, 13 percentage points above the league average offense. Los Angeles was tied with the Blue Jays, while only the Astros and Giants had better results. This winter, they lost Corey Seager to free agency, but manager Dave Roberts has Freeman fill the void with a left-handed, middle-of-the-order bat.
Even though Seager is one of the best hitters in the game, one could argue that Freeman is an offensive upgrade over him. Freeman has continuously been a top-notch bat, not having finished a season with a wRC+ below 132 since 2013. During that run, he has been nominated for five All-Star games, won three Silver Slugger Awards, and placed six times in the top ten for NL MVP.
For the past few seasons, Freeman has continued to play at the highest level possible. He was so dominant against opposing pitchers in the 60-game 2020 season that he posted a 341/.462/.640 line. Only Juan Soto performed better among eligible hitters in terms of wRC+, and Freeman easily won the Senior Circuit MVP award that year. Although it was never going to be possible for him to duplicate that kind of unearthly performance over the course of a full schedule, in 2021 he went back to his metronomically consistent ways.
Throughout the season, Freeman made appearances in 159 games with 695 plate appearances and a batting average of 300/.393/.503. He hit 31 home runs, drew walks at a strong rate of 12.2%, and only struck out in 15.4% of his plate appearances. By his high standards, Freeman had a comparatively mediocre start to the year, but starting in June, he became unbelievably hot.
In the last four months of the season, he hit at a.329/.404/.520 clip. When the chips were down, Freeman continued where he left off, leading the Braves to their fourth consecutive division title. In all three playoff rounds, he recorded an OPS of.996 or higher, which enabled Atlanta to win the World Series for the first time since 1995.
