LOS ANGELES – Freddie Freeman has always believed in the power of mind over matter.
If you ask the Los Angeles Dodgers’ eight-time All-Star first baseman how he feels physically as the club enjoys its bye week before the National League Division Series, his answer is rooted in a lifelong philosophy. Raised by a single father who navigated life without excuses after Freeman's mother passed away when he was 10, he approaches physical adversity with a steadfast work ethic: show up, do the work and never use an injury as an excuse to explain a slump.
- NLDS Game 1, presented by Booking.com: Saturday on FS1/FOX Deportes/FOX One. NOTE: If MIL faces CHC, the LAD game will start at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT. If MIL faces SD, the LAD game will start at 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT.
"I'll never blame anything physical-wise of why I didn't play well," Freeman said on Tuesday during a team Zoom call. "I just didn't play well the last couple months of the season. That's what I'm going to go with. Did I have some ailments of my knees? Yes, I did. I don't know how much that attributed to subconsciously trying to do stuff. ... So maybe I created bad habits. But I won't blame it on that. I just played bad."
So, as the Dodgers await the winner of the Phillies-Braves NL Wild Card Series for Saturday's Game 1, Freeman is treating this five-day hiatus as a lab session to recalibrate a swing that got out of rhythm down the stretch.
Freeman finished the regular season with a .792 OPS – his lowest mark in a full season since posting a .794 mark as a rookie in 2011 – after hitting just three home runs over the final three months, including a September in which he logged a .224 slugging percentage with only one extra-base hit.
Manager Dave Roberts first noted Freeman was managing right knee soreness in early September. While Freeman insists his swing issues are purely mechanical, Roberts acknowledged that playing through lower-body discomfort naturally forces a hitter to adapt, sometimes creating subtle bad habits when trying to stay comfortable at the plate.
"I think that the mechanics have changed because they were compromised because of his right knee," Roberts said on Tuesday. "And so now that his right knee is getting back to full health, I think he's got to recalibrate the swing, and that's where we're at."
For Freeman, recalibrating means treating this week’s workouts as a crucial litmus test. The bye week offers a unique benefit: he can take aggressive reps in the cage and on the field without having to take those newly adjusted mechanics straight into a live game two hours later.
"It'll be nice to not try and do something in BP and then have to go take that into the game two hours later and see if it works," Freeman said. "So, I think that's what's beneficial for me personally this week, is to be able to work on some things and not have to really put it into focus two hours later. So now, like today, I can home in on what I want to do in BP and that'll be it."
"Today I am going to kind of get more into my legs and I'm going to try what I used in the World Series in '24, kind of the step-out where I'm not bending over and cutting off my swing," Freeman added. "And I'm very confident that that's going to help get things back in line throughout the course of the week."
Freeman estimates he will take upwards of 400 swings before facing live pitching later in the week, but despite the late-season drop in power numbers, he pointed out that compared to past postseasons, he feels significantly better physically, which allows the remaining focus to go entirely to his mechanics.
"A couple of Octobers ago, [I] probably [felt] 100 times worse," Freeman said. "Ailment-wise, I truly feel good right now. So [now] it's on me now to figure out the mechanics of the swing in the next five days, and I have all the confidence in myself that I will figure that out by Saturday."
Freeman isn't the only superstar in Los Angeles managing physical wear to reach October at full strength. On a veteran roster that has endured its share of injuries all year, navigating that fierce competitive drive while ensuring players are physically fresh is an ongoing balancing act – one Roberts knows will require a flexible approach as the playoffs unfold.
"I think that we're going to be as healthy, especially those guys that have been ailing – they're going to be as healthy as they've been all year," Roberts said. "The experience is going to help us through the postseason. The hard part of having older players is the regular season. And [so] as far as messaging for me [on managing injuries and availability], it's kind of just seeing how guys lead up to Saturday, where their headspace is at. ... And then you sort of read and react all throughout the postseason."