Freddie Freeman Has A Hurt Knee And His Production Is Way Down

Freddie Freeman has an injured knee, but the Dodgers keep running him out to first base. (Photo by Melina Pizano/Getty Images)

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On June 1^st, Freddie Freeman went 0-for-4 against the Arizona Diamondbacks. That dropped his batting average to .266, and his slugging percentage to .458. It has not been that low since. That is, until he went 0-for-3 against the Cincinnati Reds last Monday. And it has only gone down from there: .457, .453, .450, and .447 after and 0-for-4 against the Miami Marlins on Sunday afternoon.

It will come as no surprise to anyone who has watched the Dodgers over the past few months that the thump has left Freeman’s bat. He hit a home run against the St. Louis Cardinals on September 2^nd, which was his first round-tripper since July 4^th – a span of 49 games. In the seven games since then, he has one hit – a measly single (he is 1-for-26 in that span).

On Monday, Los Angeles finally announced that Freeman has been dealing with right knee tendinitis. That something has been wrong for a while has been obvious to baseball fans, and those used to seeing Freeman wallop balls with authority all over the field. Over his last 38 games, he has six extra base hits – the aforementioned home run and five doubles. And yet Freeman has kept on hitting. Over that stretch, he still batted .273; and he still got on base at a 35% clip. Unfortunately, he only slugged .331. Over the last 30 days, Freeman ranks 118^th out of 153 qualified hitters in that metric. In September he is batting .100.

The 49-game streak without a homer was the longest in Freeman’s illustrious 17-year career. Last season he had a run of 42 games without a dinger, a funk that had him slashing .255/.331/.325. But, even in the throes of that drought, he was able to muster 11 doubles. The current run is far and away the worst of his career.

The metronomic consistency of Freeman makes his current swoon shocking, but not dispositive. A career .299 hitter is down to just .293 this season. His on-base percentage is currently .371, when for his career it is .385. But, as to be expected, the slugging number is way down: .447 vs. .507 over 17 seasons.

Roberts finally took Freeman out of the lineup for Monday’s game in Cincinnati. With a nine-game lead in the division and the playoffs a certainty, it is time for the Dodgers to get their players healthy and right (case in point: Shohei Ohtani to the IL). As you may recall, Freeman dealt with a severely sprained ankle at the end of the 2024 season that greatly affected his defense and his ability to run. He spent hours in the training room getting ready for each game, skipped Games 4 of both the Division Series and the Championship Series, and then slugged .519 with four home runs, including the historic walk-off grand slam in Game 1 of the World Series.

Either Freedman has great powers of persuasion, or the Dodgers didn’t learn their lesson from…last week with Shohei Ohtani. The club announced that Freeman will be in the lineup this evening against the Reds.

Maybe Los Angeles is just testing the integrity of the knee; maybe it is not as bad as fans believe. But it is just September 15^th, and Freeman’s injury in 2024 didn’t occur until September 26^th. So, by that math, he is about two weeks ahead of schedule.