Atlanta Braves season in review: 1st baseman Freddie Freeman

Defensive Back-track?

After taking home a Gold Glove in 2018 for the first time, the metrics for defense – which have never been terribly kind to Freeman – turned for the worse.

It wasn’t that Freeman was terrible at first… his overall fielding percentage actually went up from .995 to .996 thanks to one fewer errors.  He also got credit for more “scoops” at first:  up two to reach 26.

2018 may simply have been an exceptional fielding year for him.  It came with a robust Defensive Runs Saved figure of 12… a number that declined to 5 in 2019.

In short, Freeman was dinged for the same kind of reason he’s always been marked down defensively:  range issues.

So while he continued to be solid around first base and was not a liability, his overall numbers regressed in 2019, and this – remarkably – places Freeman at the bottom (50th of 50) for total defensive scores by fangraphs among all 1st basemen with at least 250 plate appearances.

I’ll just say “your mileage may vary.”

Casing the Joint

The condition of Freeman’s elbow was a big part of the discussion over the season’s last 2 weeks and a big concern throughout in the playoffs.  Those concerns were evidently warranted, as Freeman underwent surgery to clean up a mess of issues:

Happily, Freeman will have the full off-season to recover – four months – before driving down to North Port to fully experience the new Spring digs.  Having that behind him should be both a relief and a release to him.  There’s reason to expect better things come 2020.

Steady Freddie

What’s remarkable about Freeman is his consistency over the years.  It wasn’t until April 20th that he went without a hit in 2 consecutive games… oddly enough, both of those came during the April 20 double-header at Cleveland.

In addition, his season-long numbers over the past four seasons speak volumes to how much the Atlanta Braves can count on his daily production.

• 2016:  .302, .968 OPS, 158 games
• 2017:  .307, .989 OPS, 117 games (wrist broken)
• 2018:  .309, .892 OPS, 162 games
• .2019: .295, .938 OPS, 158 games

Freddie Freeman just turned 30 years old and still is raking, now in the prime portion of his career with no signs of letting up.

His late elbow issues looked to be the only thing that slowed him at all and now that this has been addressed, it’s a green light for 2020.

The only relevant question that might assist Freeman’s production in 2020 is this:  will he have the same level of lineup protection that he enjoyed this year with Josh Donaldson hitting behind him.

We’ll likely find out about that sometime before the calendar year ends.