Whenever Major League Baseball’s owner-imposed lockout ends and the offseason is allowed to resume, one of the biggest storylines worth monitoring is what the defending champion Atlanta Braves do to fill their first-base void. Heading into the offseason, the expectation was that the Braves would reach a new agreement with free agent Freddie Freeman, thereby keeping him in town for the remainder of his career.
The two sides couldn’t find common ground prior to the lockout (Freeman reportedly sought a six-year deal, while the Braves offered just five years), however, and now there’s a growing sentiment that the Braves might move on. To wit, ESPN’s Buster Olney shared this take from a rival executive on Tuesday: “I think [the Braves] will move quickly to settle on an alternative and move on to get past the conversation.”
What, precisely, might that entail? Below, we’ve highlighted five alternatives to Freeman who could end up manning the cold corner for the Braves come Opening Day.
Matt Olson is the both the most obvious and the most appealing candidate to replace Freeman. He’s a two-time Gold Glove Award winner who has homered 89 times since the start of the 2019 season. Additionally, he’s coming off a season that saw him greatly reduce his strikeout rate (from 31.4 percent to 16.8 percent), suggesting his career-best 153 OPS+ could be the beginning of a sustained run of MVP-caliber play rather than a one-off career year. The Athletics figure to start dismantling their core right after the lockout is lifted; Olson, two years away from reaching free agency, might end up being their most sought-after player.
Should the Braves fail to land Olson, they could turn to the best alternative to Freeman on the free-agent market: Anthony Rizzo. Rizzo’s production the last two seasons has been closer to league-average than not, and his past back woes should give teams pause. Still, there’s fair reason for the Braves (and others) to inquire about his services. Rizzo’s ball-tracking metrics indicate he might have one more big year in the tank, and he’s held as a positive at first base and in the clubhouse. He’s unlikely to require a long-term deal, either, making him a tolerable stopgap solution.
Trey Mancini was the best story in baseball last season. After missing the 2020 campaign to undergo cancer treatment, he returned and slugged 21 home runs en route to a 104 OPS+. Mancini will qualify for free agency after the 2022 season, and while the Orioles might love him as a human being, they haven’t shown an inclination to spend much money on their big-league roster. As such, the next best option might be shipping Mancini to a contender in exchange for some prospects.
The Yankees are among the teams with reported interest in Freeman. They also acquired Rizzo last deadline, meaning there could be some interest in a longer relationship. Adding either would make Luke Voit expendable. Voit was limited by injuries to just 68 games last season, and he didn’t perform up to his usual standards when he was able to take the field. Even so, he has three years of team control remaining and he might make sense for the Braves if they believe in his health and his ability to return to his old form. Remember, he slugged 43 home runs and posted a 135 OPS+ over the duration of the 2019-20 seasons.
Truth be told, we don’t think Eric Hosmer is one of the five likeliest solutions for the Braves if they move away from Freeman. We do, however, think he would be worth thinking about if the Braves wanted to get creative. The Padres were shopping Hosmer, essentially a platoon player at this point, around last deadline with a willingness to attach a quality prospect (perhaps even former first-round pick Robert Hassell) to dump what remains on his contract (four years, $60 million). The Braves being the ones to take up the Padres on their offer would be odd, but it would be the kind of bold move you can afford to make when you’re the reigning champions.
