Many thought that after Freddie Freeman’s return to Atlanta both he and the Atlanta Braves could finally move on, but the opposite seems to be happening.
Freddie Freeman will forever be tied to the Atlanta Braves and every time he faces his old team it will be a huge story mentioned every time he comes to bat.
Still, his homecoming was supposed to help things die down a bit and allow us all to move on with the new normal.
That new first baseman for the Braves is pretty good and the team is having one of its best months in the history of the franchise.
But the story of Freddie Freeman’s free agency and departure from Atlanta just continues to become more-and-more bizarre.
First, there were reports on Tuesday that Freddie Freeman was firing his agent. For many of us who understood how poorly his agents handled negotiations, we wondered why it took so long for this to happen.
His agent clearly didn’t have the client’s best interest in mind or Freeman would still be with the Braves.
Then on Wednesday, Doug Gottlieb of all people dropped a bombshell saying Freddie’s agent never made him aware of the Braves’ final offer and that his agent knew Freddie would take the deal.
There are some discrepancies in what that final offer actually was. In the article by Buster Olney linked above, he states it was 5 years and $140 million. But this article from Sports Illustrated says there was a 6-year, $140 million offer on the table in March.
I tend to believe Olney’s reporting as I’ve never heard anyone else report about a six-year deal.
Either way, it’s pretty clear there was a lack of communication between Freddie and his agent that resulted in a deal not getting done with the Braves and Freddie winding up in LA.
But the drama didn’t end there.
Excel Sports Agency released a statement on behalf of Casey Close in response to the tweet by Gottlieb.
Statement on behalf of Casey Close:
— excel sports (@excelsm) June 30, 2022
Doug Gottlieb tweeted a wholly inaccurate characterization of our negotiations with the Atlanta Braves on behalf of Freddie Freeman. We are immediately evaluating all legal options to address the reckless publication of inaccurate information.
This has led to a lot of fun and speculation on Twitter and the comment sections of YouTube where we now have the hashtags #VoidTheContract and #TradeFreddieBackToAtlanta.
Let’s make one thing clear, Freddie is not getting traded to Atlanta nor is he coming back anytime soon — that ship has sailed.
There may be some legal grounds for him to void the contract if his agent dealt in bad faith — I’m not a legal expert. But even if he does, the Braves aren’t signing another first-baseman to a big deal.
It was always pretty clear that if Freddie didn’t return to Atlanta then he would go to a Westcoast team, so while he’s clearly not happy that he’s not with the Braves, that doesn’t mean he’s miserable with the Dodgers.
Although, there was a conversation between Freddie Freeman and Clayton Kershaw as the Dodgers’ long-time pitcher (who is also represented by the Excel Sports Agency) seemed to take exception to Freemans’ comments about not wanting to close the book on his time in Atlanta.
At this point, we all just need to move on. Freddie is a Dodger. Olson is a Braves. Both teams are very good and set up to win for years to come. Let’s end this unnecessary drama and focus on what’s happening on the field.