The Los Angeles Dodgers gave Freddie Freeman a rare break earlier this week as he did not play during the Baltimore Orioles series in order to rest the hairline fracture in his right middle finger.
Freeman suffered the injury on Aug. 17 and struggled at the plate in his six ensuing games. Freeman returned to the Dodgers lineup and hit a home run in his first at-bat.
Not that the Dodgers or Freeman needed it, but the immediate success lent further credence to the brief time off as being warranted.
While the goal was to provide some relief for Freeman’s fractured finger, he found the break as being beneficial mentally as well, per Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic:
“A lot’s been going on the last six, seven weeks,” Freeman said. “So I think we would say it was a finger break, but I took the last three days of trying to just shut the brain off and just not really worry too much about things and give my mind a break.
“Got to sleep with the boys in their room. Did the best I can to be Dad to them. And now I’m back here and giving everything I can to the game now.”
Freeman only missed two games in his Dodgers career — one in each of the past two seasons — before taking time away to be with his family while son Maximus was hospitalized with Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare neurological disorder.
Freeman missed seven games before feeling comfortable to rejoin the Dodgers as his son was released and improving at home.
The 34-year-old was understandably emotional upon getting back to playing but felt comfortable doing so because of the strides Max had made.
Freddie Freeman’s injury recovery
Even with some of the benefits that came from Freeman taking a break, the reality is his fractured finger still won’t be fully healed before the regular season ends.
“I think it’s more of, you’re either going to take four to six weeks, which was not going to be an option, or you try to hopefully let the initial pain and discomfort maybe dissipate a little bit,” manager Dave Roberts said.
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