It’s not a good look for the Atlanta Braves when the low-budget Tampa Bay Rays are making an offer to their former face of the franchise, Freddie Freeman.
Somehow the only news that continues to come out during this lockout is about Atlanta Braves free-agent first baseman Freddie Freeman.
It seems like every week there is a new report about how Freddie Freeman could be signing elsewhere and another team is interested in him.
You don’t hear much about a lot of other free agents, and there are some other big names out there.
The latest news report says that the Tampa Bay Rays apparently made an offer to Freddie Freeman before the lockout.
Sources: The low-revenue Tampa Bay Rays made superstar Freddie Freeman an offer before the lockout. Yankees very interested. Jays, Dodgers, others could fit. It’s a surprise Braves didn’t lock him up before lockout; they remain in mix. (New daily feature: actual baseball news)
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) March 7, 2022
This may come as a surprise considering the Rays don’t normally get involved in high-price free agents, but as MLB Trade Rumors points out, they don’t have a lot of money on the books and could actually free up some money with trades this season.
They just locked up their young, budding superstar of a shortstop in Wander Franco for 11 years.
Perhaps they feel like Freddie Freeman is that missing veteran piece that can take that young and talented group of players to the World Series.
It certainly makes a lot of sense when you look at it that way.
Still, it’s hard to imagine the Rays making a serious offer and paying a player who is 32 nearly $30 million a year for five or six years.
I can’t wait for this lockout to finally end so we can put an end to the speculation. But this does show that there will be plenty of suitors for Freeman once the offseason picks back up.
And it could potentially drive the Braves to a point where they aren’t willing to go. Let’s hope that’s not the case and he doesn’t get out of Atlanta.