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Atlanta Braves: The New Year is looking mighty bright!

By Dalton Skaggs

NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 26: Ender Inciarte #11 of the Atlanta Braves reacts after hitting a lead off double against the New York Mets on September 26, 2017 at Citi Field in Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 26: Ender Inciarte #11 of the Atlanta Braves reacts after hitting a lead off double against the New York Mets on September 26, 2017 at Citi Field in Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images) /
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ATLANTA, GA – SEPTEMBER 19: Freddie Freeman #5 of the Atlanta Braves rounds third base on the way to score on a RBI single hit by Kurt Suzuki #24 at SunTrust Park on September 19, 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GA – SEPTEMBER 19: Freddie Freeman #5 of the Atlanta Braves rounds third base on the way to score on a RBI single hit by Kurt Suzuki #24 at SunTrust Park on September 19, 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /

3.) Freddie Freeman

Freeman is the type of ballplayer you build a franchise around, and that is exactly what Atlanta is doing with Freddie. Atlanta is in a rebuild, and trading away one of the the main infrastructures of that rebuild will only prolong the completion date.

Despite the wrist injury that sidelined him for 7 weeks, Freeman still led the team in several categories: 28 HRs, .307 batting average, .403 OBP, .586 SLG, and a .989 OPS. This kind of superstardom is something that you hold onto, not something you let go of, especially when your rebuild is almost complete.

As long as Freeman stays healthy in 2018, you can expect him to be making a trip to Nationals Park for the All Star game, and potentially for the Home Run Derby as well.

Wait, Freeman to the Home Run derby?!

Possibly, yes. In case you don’t remember, on May 16, 2017, Freeman hit his 14th Home Run of the season in Toronto, which put him over Aaron Judge on the MLB season leaderboard for the most HR’s, at the time. But as fate would have it, in the very next series against the very same Blue Jays at SunTrust Park, Freeman suffered the wrist injury that put him on the DL until July 4. As long as Freeman is healthy for 2018, he is going to have a career year.

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