Atlanta Braves: 4 year offer for Josh Donaldson could affect Freddie Freeman extension

Desire to be Brave

The Braves current general manager, Alex Anthopoulos stated in November of 2019 in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution,

"“Whenever those conversations take place, whether they have or haven’t, we’re going to work really hard to keep those really quiet. But it speaks for itself. He’s a huge part of our team. Wants to be here. Drafted and developed here. Our hope is he’s here for the rest of his career.”"

Anthopoulos has made it very clear that he wants Freddie Freeman to finish his career with the franchise he started with. Freddie Freeman was drafted by the Braves in the second round of the 2007 draft and made his debut on September 1, 2010. Ten years later he is the face of the storied franchise.

Sometimes fans understand letting a star player walk as they get older, the Cardinals did it with Pujols as they deemed his asking price to be too high.

Freddie is one of those players that (I think we can all agree) it would make us sick to see him in another uniform. Imagining Freddie Freeman in any other uniform is like a dog pooping in a litter box, it doesn’t seem right.

Freeman is entering the seventh season of his eight-year, $135 million contract. He was there during the collapse of 2011, he was there during Chipper’s last game, he led the team back to the playoffs in 2013. He was also our hero during the rough years starting in 2014 when we lost 83,  95, 93, and 90 games.

The Braves were in a rebuild and the idea of building revolved around the towering talent we had standing at first base. At a time when the Braves traded away stars like Craig Kimbrel, Evan Gattis, Andrelton Simmons and Justin Upton, Freddie remained untouchable.

Freddie took the torch from Chipper and created his own legacy. It only seems fitting that he sees it through to the end.

We’ve heard how the Braves feel, they want him to finish his career here. Of course, they do! How does Freeman feel about a new contract?

In an interview with Fox Sports South in January of 2018, Freeman said,

"“[Jones] never wanted to be a free agent. He was loyal and that rubs off on me. I want to be here forever. Hopefully, I can follow in his path. I don’t know if I’ll ever do what he did, but hopefully, I can be here for the rest of my career.”"

(h/t NBC Sports)

He’s open to the idea. In the next slide, we’ll take a look at who the Braves have under contract over the next three seasons and where Freddie fits in.