Freddie Freeman of the Los Angeles Dodgers enters the 2025 season as the top choice in The Shredder rankings of the Top-10 First Baseman Right Now. He has been ranked in the top two each season since 2018, and it is his 12th consecutive appearance on the list.
Freeman’s placement in the top spot was unanimous with MLB Network analysts Brian Kenny, Sean Casey, and Sarah Langs being in agreement with the Shredder’s assessment. He was also the unanimous No. 1 first baseman in MLB on the 2024 Shredder rankings.
Bryce Harper was unanimously voted as the No. 2 first baseman heading into 2025. The No. 3 and No.4 spots on the list is where The Shredder and the analysts disagreed. The Shredder had Matt Olson followed by Vladimir Guerrero Jr., while the analysts each voted the opposite way.
Freeman has been one of the best pure hitters in MLB for more than a decade now, but was on an exceptional run from 2020-2023. Over the four year stretch, Freeman hit .321 with a .949 on-base plus slugging percentage, 154 doubles, 94 home runs, and 338 RBI in 539 games. He also accumulated a WRC+ of 156 over those four seasons.
By those high standards, Freeman had a slightly down year in 2024 as he slashed .282/.378/.476 with 35 doubles and 22 homers. But even this season was still better than most others around the league as evident by his 137 WRC+.
Freeman earned a fourth consecutive All-Star appearance, it was his eighth selection to the Midsummer Classic overall. Since joining the Dodgers in 2022, Freeman’s 17.4 WAR leads all first baseman, Olson is second with 14.5 WAR.
While the 2024 regular season was not his best showing in quite a while, he saved his best for the postseason where he had one of the best World Series performances of any Dodgers player ever. Freeman played through a sprained ankle, a broken rib, and fractured finger and still managed to hit four crucial home runs in the World Series, setting a new MLB record in the process.
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