PHOENIX — No sport loves its numbers more than baseball.
Freddie Freeman shares that reverence, recognizing their utility in the ultimate goal – winning.
“Numbers are still a huge thing,” he said over the weekend while in the process of putting up a stat line that earned him National League Player of the Week honors. “Everybody looks at numbers. Everyone loves round numbers.
“As you’re a kid growing up, for me it was 500 home runs, 3,000 hits. Those were the numbers. … Round numbers are really cool.”
Three thousand hits is a round number only 33 players in the history of Major League Baseball have reached (most recently, Miguel Cabrera in April 2022). It represents “longevity, consistency” to Freeman, two traits that characterize his career, now in its 16th season. And it is a number Freeman would like to reach.
With a four-hit game on Sunday, Freeman has 2,308 career hits, the most among active players. Houston’s Jose Altuve is next at 2,270.
“It would mean a lot,” he said. “I’ve always valued hits. I know hits and average have dwindled in value in analytics and all that. But I value it. If I hit .300 and I play every day that means, with the way I walk as well, I’m on base close to the upper 200s. That creates traffic. That creates stress and different things. So I value it.
“Obviously I’m 35 now. I’ll be 36 at the end of the year. So I’ve got less than a handful of years left. You do think about those type of things. But that’s not the forefront obviously. Winning is at the forefront for me. But if I’m on the field and I’m healthy, I believe in myself that potentially I have a good chance of making it.”
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts thinks Freeman has more than just a good chance.
“He’ll get there. He will absolutely get there. There’s no doubt in my mind,” Roberts said.
“I think it represents consistency and longevity and that’s something that he really hangs his hat on. Nowadays, people talk about slug and there’s certainly value to it. But to accrue a number like that – consistency, longevity, availability, reliability, all of those things for your teammate and your manager, that’s invaluable.”
Freeman – a career .301 hitter who has averaged 181 hits for every 162 games in his career – has done the numbers on what it will take to get to 3,000.
“Obviously it’s not set in stone. I have two years left on this contract (after 2025),” he said. “Then I would like to play two more years. I would turn 40 in September of 2029. So including this year, if I were to do 150 hits for all five years – just an average – you reach it. Obviously … Father Time, you never know when that’s going to hit. I’m trying to keep it away as long as I can. If I can have decent years this year and the next couple years, it’s an easier reach.”
The challenges become greater as you age. Freeman certainly has found that out over the past year. He missed 15 games last season due to a broken finger, a severely sprained ankle and his son’s illness. It was the most action he had missed since 2017, when he was hit by a pitch and suffered a broken wrist.
The ankle injury has lingered into this season even after surgery last fall. Freeman admits he is playing at less than 100%. The 2024 World Series MVP gets 90 minutes of treatment on his ankle before every game and more after the game. He plays with it taped and with heel lifts in his cleats to lessen the impact of running and has grudgingly agreed there might be value in taking an occasional day off.
With all that, he is batting .376 with a 1.170 OPS.
“I’m obviously not feeling 100%. But I am feeling good enough out there where I’m not thinking about it,” he said Sunday. “But I do have a lot that goes into each and every day to get on the field. Ultimately I feel good enough.
“Thomas (Albert, Dodgers head athletic trainer) thinks in a couple months, maybe after the All-Star break, I might not have to do as much treatment. I’m looking forward to that.”
In some scenarios, Freeman would be entering the DH phase of his career. Shohei Ohtani’s presence eliminates that option with the Dodgers – and Freeman rejects it anyway. It is not the way he wants to reach whatever milestones he reaches in the twilight years of his career.
“I don’t want to,” he said. “There’s also another number that I really like that people might not think is special but it’s special to me. That’s games played at first base. Eddie Murray has that (2,413 – Freeman is at 2,035).
“That would mean something because it’s hard to play every day – at any position – and that’s a lot of games played. That means you were good enough for an organization to put you out there for that many games. That means something to me. That means you were consistently good every year and they valued having you out there on the field every day.”
Freeman is hopeful the Dodgers still value him enough in two years to offer him another contract – the opportunity to market a march to 3,000 would certainly have value for the Dodgers as well – and rejects the narrative of returning to Atlanta at that point to finish his career where it began.
He also rejects the idea that he could be the last player to join the 3,000-hit club, a notion raised in some quarters because of the lower offensive numbers in the current era and the de-emphasis on batting average.
Beyond Freeman and Altuve (who just turned 35), only two other active players have more than 2,000 hits and both (Pittsburgh outfielder Andrew McCutchen and New York Yankees first baseman Paul Goldschmidt) are older than Freeman.
Some young player out there has started his own march to 3,000, Freeman said, and he ticks off the requirements.
“The younger guys still have a chance,” he said, citing Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. as a prime example. “You’ve got to get to the big leagues early. You’ve got to be consistent. You’ve got to be good enough that they want you to play every day – which is hard to do in this game. Be able to hit right- and left(-handed pitching). To be in the lineup a lot.”
Freeman has done all of those things throughout his career and now sees “a light at the end of the tunnel” that makes reaching 3,000 hits “not unrealistic now.”
“I honestly respect him saying he’s chasing 3,000,” Roberts said. “I don’t see anything wrong with chasing consistency. I think that’s great. You’re essentially saying, ‘Yeah, I’m chasing being really good for four more years.’ What’s wrong with that? There’s nothing wrong with that.”
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