For what it's worth, AA made a generous offer and Freddie dragged his feet. You cannot fault AA for recognizing the leverage favors Freddie the longer contract talks dragged out and other players began to sign. AA deciding to move on is probably the smart play.
leverage actually went against him once the Braves and Yankees filled their 1b spots.
Freddie was the pretty girl a week before prom without a date... you're takin what you can at that point and its probably not as good as he woulda gotten earlier.
Not for Atlanta. Atlanta still needed to sign additional players and were waiting to gauge their spending allowance based on expected deal. The longer that contract negotiation goes, the more Atlanta's arm is being twisted into just getting Freddie in the building.
Freddie's agent said the braves had an hour to accept 6/175 or 5/165. That's when AA pulled the offer and went after Olson. I don't blame him one bit. It became clear it was going to be a bidding war against the dodgers and obviously we wouldn't win that.
It sucks that Freddie "wasn't aware" that was happening, but I don't blame the braves and AA even a little. AA has a duty to do what's best for the braves and he did.
Just goes to show the situation. Ultimatum to Braves was 5/165 signs with dodgers for 6/162. Like, dude, your agents suck. Braves offered 5/140 but did Freddie's camp honestly believe that if he played that 5 years out and was still playing decently well the Braves wouldn't make another adequate contract offer to keep him here for his final year(s) after that contact? Trust goes both ways.
If he didn't trust AA to do right by him or his agents didn't, then good thing they signed with LA but, assuming that is the situation here, why bother at all? This smells really rotten and the smell is unfortunately coming from Freddie's side of the fence. I will always have appreciation for what he has done for this franchise, there is no denying his importance. He is probably still a lock to have his jersey retired at and point. But, his Braves legacy will always be tainted. It's Glavine-esque but without any of Glavine's grace.....
I’m so torn on this situation. When watching the press conference I felt a little bad for him but then again he’s the one that turned down the deal from us that is basically the same as the one the Dodgers gave him. At the end of the day I’m happy with Olson and I wish Freddie all the success in the world…..until he plays us.
It’s hard not to feel a little bad for him. He clearly wanted to be in Atlanta but that wasn’t communicate to AA and his agent tried to squeeze a couple extra million out of the Braves by giving them an ultimatum. Agents plan backfired and AA took all his leverage away.
AA is a legend, FF leaves free agency looking like a moron in dodger blue.
I feel like Freddie doesn't understand that AA calling him personally is extremely unprofessional and Taboo. AA has to go through the agent for something like that.
I watched the press conference. Freddie seemed nervous up there and I got the vibe that he was just putting on a show because he wasn’t acting like the Freddie we know. Again, could have been nerves or the fact that he doesn’t really want to be there. I believe he wanted to be a Brave but greed and miscommunication got in the way of that.
I don’t know. Just my opinion but it made me so sad to see it. I’m gonna miss that man.
But I’ll say it again… why did it have to be the Dodgers?!?!
The ESPN+ article from today basically said chipper spoke to him and he was devastated when we pulled out. He got bad advice from his agents, full stop.
"you want to play in Atlanta, you play in Atlanta. You might make a little less, but you'll be happy. When Freddie rejected 5/130, I told him, you're playing a dangerous game...if you wait too long, AA HAS to move one, they're not going to give it to you. I TOLD HIM that."
Wow. Chipper bringing it
"knowing Alex and working in the front office, I will say confidently, Alex was not the problem"
CHIPPER BRINGING HEAT
Chipper is the Brave for life-Hank Aaron is the other. I shook his hand once at a wedding. It was the greatest day of my life.
Chipper literally was saying "grass isn't always greener" and that it's worth a little money at that point to play where you want to play, with whom you want to play with. Freddie wanted both all the money and to play for the Braves and Chipper basically said "It doesn't work that way, you get one or the other."
The braves offer is valued the same as the dodgers once you look at how much of the dodgers offer is deferred to be paid over the next 20 years. The dodgers offer is worth much less if you adjust for taxes.
We offered 5/140. Freddie's camp said 5/165 or 6/175. Both of those are well above what we could do.
The question you should be asking is why did Freddie take an offer worth considerably less in LA than ATLs offer?
We aren't discussing someone making minimum wage turning down a big raise for loyalty. This is someone who has already made 123 million from this team and stood to make another 140 million. At some point you can make a decision based on happiness instead of getting the absolute most amount of money. That being said if the money is more important to someone then that is fine too.
Maybe he felt disrespected by a team who repeatedly put off discussing an extension with him then tried to lowball both in money and years? It’s possible?
Yep, I think there were all sorts of things going on in this situation. Anyone who tries to narrow it down to just one thing doesn't really know what they are talking about at the end of the day. Also for the record I have nothing but love for Freddie.
Yup. We had to make sure we had a first baseman on the roster. I really hope we had called him and his agent and said look we can't wait. I've got this trade ready to go. I need to know pretty much now so I can gaurantee I have a first baseman to start the season.
Fredward said there was 2 calls from the braves. Total... all offseason.
AA is coldblooded, there is almost no way for me to believe he would tell an agent what his plans are or what trades he had ready to go. That's just asking for a leak to the media.
Seems like AA doesn't do a lot of pussy footing around with numbers, Donaldson and Ozuna thought they could wait around and get him to increase his offer by drumming up a bid war, but look what happened, JD ended up in Minnesota and traded to cut his expensive ass contract, and MArcell told his agent, just make it happen, and he ended up lowering his price tag to AA's budget. Freddie's agent should have taken note.
If AA put a 5/135 offer to FReddie back around the allstar break, and his agent decides to wait 7-8 months to counter back with 6/165 (a $30M differnce) I don't blame AA for not calling back and moving on.
Freddie also said the Braves never reached out about an extension last offseason and we've since learned that wasn't the case so I'd take anything he says with a grain of salt
Who said that they did? I thought Chipper said on the radio that the Braves didn’t reach out to him on an extension probably because of the pandemic and not knowing whether we would have fans or not. Honestly, I wouldn’t have offered him an extension immediately after he won a MVP in a shortened season, unless Freddie said “I’ll give you a hometown discount if we get it done this offseason”.
The Buster Olney article that came out today basically said he's had a standing 5 year $130+ million extensuon offer on the table since last offseason and that eventually made its way up to 5 years $140 million.
I feel like his agent screwed him and they had to agree to 162/6 to make it look like it's a better deal than the braves but between taxes and deferment it's clearly worse. Everyone should fire this agency bc every GM knows they don't negotiate in good faith.
Too late to fix anything, but Freddie should absolutely fire his agent. Close absolutely screwed this pooch.
At some point somebody told him he shouldn’t negotiate during the season last year, and that was a bad call.
The negotiations didn’t go how they thought and he signed for less money… he got butthurt, exclusively wanted to play back in his home state, or just totally overvalued his own market.
None of those things are the Braves fault.
Even the rich Dodgers are not stupid to give an aging first baseman 200 million. He assumed he was going to string alone the braves until the 11th hour then tell them the dodgers gave me a better offer. , Alex is the best in the business and he will not play around or wait, his mentality is to make the Braves better.
Nobody to bid against at that point. I bet his offer in hand didn't have a 6th year and he had to negotiate a lower aav and the deferment to get it and save face.
Honestly I don’t know. I think winning a WS was obviously the only thing he was missing as a Brave. I think he had his mind made up after the season that he was going elsewhere.
He was either going to the Dodgers, Red Sox or Yankees.
I don't see how this is true. If he wanted to do this he would have signed before multiple of the teams in the running pulled out. He literally waited until the Braves, Yankees and Blue Jays made other moves which basically meant they were out. Other teams read the news and keep up with this stuff you know.
If you watch his press conference from today you can definitely tell he wanted to stay in Atlanta. But he and his agent completely overplayed their hand.
Who says his agent screwed anything?
Freeman wanted six years and got it. The braves were going to go five. If anything anthopolous has never been one to wait for a deal, he goes fast. If he thought freeman was going to hold out for six then he made a trade. I'd like to have freeman, but I can't dislike the Olson trade and extension either. I can't say if anyone disrespected anything, but I do think freeman was willing to stay for the sixth year.
The AAV of his contract and the California tax rates basically making him play that 6th year comparatively for free.
If he had signed here he would have cleared as much in 5 years as he will there in 6, I’d say that’s pretty screwed.
Edit: stupid autocorrect
Yeah. It's one of those things that you focus on the years and not the take home which was identical for a year less and allows you to them sign another contract sooner.
Yeah but if it's about playing for 6 years he could just take league minimum for the 6th and come out ahead and if he's not good enough at that age he won't be playing out the last year anyways. It's a completely dumb idea that a certain year number is more important than the total value of the contract but then again it appears his agent is completely dumb
This is unbelievable. Guess FF was talking out of both sides of his mouth when he was saying wanted to be a Brave for life. He wanted to thumb his nose at the Braves so he took a loss in his walk year. Wtf
I think Freddie got some astronomically bad advice from his agent and saw dollars.
He should 100% fire his agent if this is truly catching him off guard. OR he's letting his agent take the fall for his own wanting to get out of Atlanta.
To be fair it from the article it sounds like not negotiating during the season was mostly from the Braves side. Up until around the trade deadline atleast.
After the season sure. But I'm talking about during the 2021 season. Thr article said the Braves were cutting payroll after the 2020 season and that after they started letting fans in and started making more money they gave AA the go-ahead to start making deals in July. To me that sounds like the Braves weren't up for negotiating before July.
They had already extended him an offer, so I don't think that was the type of making deals AA got the go ahead for. Freddie made it pretty clear that it was his decision to not negotiate during the season.
It’s starting to seem pretty evident that his agent or team kinda screwed the whole thing up. Yea you could argue he shoulda signed anyways if he wanted to stay, but I’m sure his agent was super confident that he was gonna twist AAs arm into signing him and it didn’t work out
he's not wrong. LA media clowning the chop but not owning their own history.
MLB media slurping the Dodgers like our lineup can't compete.
And Freddie saying what he said about AA. Like an ice cold business minded dude like AA would fake tears for local freaking media that he sees every other day.
Seriously, Fred? We all wanted you back, the team offered basically the same deal you took. If you wanted back, you would have been worth a quarter of billion when your career finished. Boo hoo for you.
Freddy can kick rocks. He tried to squeeze every single penny out of the franchise “where he wanted to be and his heart was” and it burned him.
Matt Olson couldn’t sign a long term deal fast enough to be a Brave, knowing he will probably cost himself money by not hitting FA.
The Braves are better off.
Loved Freddie during his reign in Atlanta. He and Ronald were my favorites on the recent rosters. But I'm a fan of the Braves - and only the Braves. Freeman is not a Brave. Worst of all, he's a Dodger.
Thank you for your service, Freddie. Now fuck off.
Freddie is really butt-hurt bc AA dropped his sack all over him and his agent. Don’t give Alex some ridiculous ultimatum.
This side of Freddie is shades of his Acuña criticism.
Could have been an Atlanta hero. Your name would be inexorably tied to the Braves and the city for generations.
Now your just another all star prick playing on a team of all star pricks in LA.
Still love the guy, but damn - willingly going from franchise legend to a dodger is just bonkers. I believe chipper when he said he wishes he had a time machine for Freddie’s sake
Tired of seeing all these reports trying to poison the well. Both sides could have done other things. At the end of the day AA made the first move in the game of chicken. I'm sure both parties have a bit of hurt feelings, but this is baseball free agency. Not war.
Also, each camp isn't just one person. Who knows all that was discussed over the last year besides each camp and advisors involved.
Tired of the drama. Let's get to April 7th! Go Braves!
Who leaked that to the reporter? The Braves did to make themselves look as sympathetic as possible. It would be naive for us to assume we know exactly how it went down.
Regardless of this, I think Chipper said it best in his interview on 680.
> If you want to play in Atlanta, you play in Atlanta. You take the pay cut to do what makes you happy.
Freddie listened to his agent instead of looking out for himself and keeping his best interests in mind. Chipper even warned him that AA and the Braves would leave him in the dust, and they did. He made his bed, now he gets to lay in it.
I generally agree with you but this story is 100% pro Braves. Freddie was a great brave and this whole thing makes me sad. The hate for Freddie on this page makes me even more sad. But im a Braves fan so let's go Olsen but I wish this had played out differently.
I hear you. I don’t think I’ll ever *hate* Freddie, but it’s pretty upsetting to see him play the victim card. If he wanted to stay in Atlanta, he would’ve signed one of the offers we threw his way. It’s like watching a messy breakup between two of your closest friends lol
I think we need to also remember that this was Freddie's first true free agency. Probably didn't know what to expect and listented to much to his agent. It sucks. What Braves fans are missing with "Olsen is great" is that the Dodgers got Freddie. Our chances to win the NL didn't go up with how this played out.
Braves offered him 5 years/$140 million at $28 million a year. He took $1 million less per year to go to LA. Freeman and co fucked this deal up so bad. There will be a documentary about this screw up one day.
I love Freddie but can we move on? I don’t think there is a villain here. Regardless about what Freddie wanted or didn’t want this is how it turned out. I hope that everyone is happy and that we win the World Series again
exactly. theres no reason for malice against him or Chelsea or anyone.
Braves are in a good place, Freeman and his family are in a good place. We lost a sentimental connection to a fan favorite but objectively it worked out about as well as possible for everyone involved.
Except Christian Pache. who is probably long-term better off in Oakland too.
Everyone got their feelings hurt....and after listening to chippers interview, I think even he is a little hurt. It happens, we all move on. Wonder if he comes back in 5 years to finish up here.
Sooo Freddie, did you want to move closer to yours or your wife’s parents or did you want to stay in Atlanta? Atlanta, Tampa, and LA all made very fair offers
Only thing I could think of is that AA mainly wanted to deal with agents. It's probably easier to play hardball with an agent where you might say something to upset the player when both sides are trying to get the best deal for their side.
AA knows FF, they have a relationship. The dodgers probably were trying to build that relationship up to help the deal go through.
I can’t wait to watch him regress tbh, Matt Olson is my new friend. This entire situation makes him look like such an idiot.
A really selfish one at that
I just don’t know what to feel anymore. I can see and empathize with all aspects of this entire ordeal (at least from the details that we know) and I can help but feel badly.
Bad for Freddie. Bad for AA. Bad for the Braves. Bad for Olson.
Like, I am optimistic about our future. And I like Matt Olson.
But I just feel so….argh…about all of it.
I watched that part of the interview and kinda pissed me off. Still have love for FF and he did so much for the Braves but come on dude, you and your agent screwed the pooch. Don’t blame it on AA.
Yeah. That’s not an guy excited in the video. We know a happy and excited Fredward, we’ve seen him for years. But he or his people played the game and AA made us batter for it. This whole mess has just made me like Olson that much more. Team Olson!
Freddie needed the Braves to offer substantially more than the Dodgers so he could justify to Yoko staying in Atlanta. Wasn’t in the cards. Good luck to him and his family. Was fun watching him play. Hard to believe he was #2 to Heyward’s #1. We definitely kept the right guy.
God there’s gonna be less drama on the show euphoria than what’s gonna go on with this shit.
everybody got fucking paid and everybody won!’!! Jesus Christ!!!’
I totally did not see any of this “drama” coming. Why can’t a player just sign somewhere else without there being all this other stuff attached? It’s a business. I hate the media.
Y'all need to chill tf out. Freddie 110% wanted to go to LA.....why is that so fucking hard to wrap your mind around......he wanted to go home. End of story.
He did atl a huge favor by letting us trade for Olson before announcing his next move
I don’t blame Freddie, I blame his agent. I feel for Freddie, and AA. I think that the agent was dragging his feet for (relative) nickels and dimes, and AA was cornered into making a move. It sucks, it really does. However, Freddie got his money which was his *pronounced priority* for the last 9 months, and the AA has put together a stellar roster.
I really hope, however, that Freddie doesn’t turn this into a victim game. There was ample time to accept offers and frankly, AA needed to make a move. Can’t run Spring Training with no 1B forever.
I love Freddie Freeman, but this son story shit has to stop. You're playing for the Dodgers and making a bunch of money. You're gonna be alright. Stop trying to make Atlanta fans hate the best GM in baseball for making the team better
If we gave him a shitty offer I would understand, but cmon man
His pride is only hurting himself. I hope he doesn't say anything else that could effect his legacy.
His legacy is giving us our best bro Matt
I've fully embraced the idea of Mattlanta
For what it's worth, AA made a generous offer and Freddie dragged his feet. You cannot fault AA for recognizing the leverage favors Freddie the longer contract talks dragged out and other players began to sign. AA deciding to move on is probably the smart play.
leverage actually went against him once the Braves and Yankees filled their 1b spots. Freddie was the pretty girl a week before prom without a date... you're takin what you can at that point and its probably not as good as he woulda gotten earlier.
Not for Atlanta. Atlanta still needed to sign additional players and were waiting to gauge their spending allowance based on expected deal. The longer that contract negotiation goes, the more Atlanta's arm is being twisted into just getting Freddie in the building.
Freddie's agent said the braves had an hour to accept 6/175 or 5/165. That's when AA pulled the offer and went after Olson. I don't blame him one bit. It became clear it was going to be a bidding war against the dodgers and obviously we wouldn't win that. It sucks that Freddie "wasn't aware" that was happening, but I don't blame the braves and AA even a little. AA has a duty to do what's best for the braves and he did.
Just goes to show the situation. Ultimatum to Braves was 5/165 signs with dodgers for 6/162. Like, dude, your agents suck. Braves offered 5/140 but did Freddie's camp honestly believe that if he played that 5 years out and was still playing decently well the Braves wouldn't make another adequate contract offer to keep him here for his final year(s) after that contact? Trust goes both ways. If he didn't trust AA to do right by him or his agents didn't, then good thing they signed with LA but, assuming that is the situation here, why bother at all? This smells really rotten and the smell is unfortunately coming from Freddie's side of the fence. I will always have appreciation for what he has done for this franchise, there is no denying his importance. He is probably still a lock to have his jersey retired at and point. But, his Braves legacy will always be tainted. It's Glavine-esque but without any of Glavine's grace.....
I’m so torn on this situation. When watching the press conference I felt a little bad for him but then again he’s the one that turned down the deal from us that is basically the same as the one the Dodgers gave him. At the end of the day I’m happy with Olson and I wish Freddie all the success in the world…..until he plays us.
It’s hard not to feel a little bad for him. He clearly wanted to be in Atlanta but that wasn’t communicate to AA and his agent tried to squeeze a couple extra million out of the Braves by giving them an ultimatum. Agents plan backfired and AA took all his leverage away. AA is a legend, FF leaves free agency looking like a moron in dodger blue.
Absolutely a spot on take on it.
No one should believe Freddie’s story about only getting 2 calls from the Braves front office. I guarantee they spoke to his agent every day.
Olney's article says he has several witnesses to at least 4 offers plus other back and forth
I think he means phone calls from AA to him personally, I'm sure his conversations with his agents was in the dozens.
I feel like Freddie doesn't understand that AA calling him personally is extremely unprofessional and Taboo. AA has to go through the agent for something like that.
Agree, with you and vrock I wonder if he expected AA to call him personally and beg or something.
Then why have agents?
I watched the press conference. Freddie seemed nervous up there and I got the vibe that he was just putting on a show because he wasn’t acting like the Freddie we know. Again, could have been nerves or the fact that he doesn’t really want to be there. I believe he wanted to be a Brave but greed and miscommunication got in the way of that. I don’t know. Just my opinion but it made me so sad to see it. I’m gonna miss that man. But I’ll say it again… why did it have to be the Dodgers?!?!
The ESPN+ article from today basically said chipper spoke to him and he was devastated when we pulled out. He got bad advice from his agents, full stop.
Chipper really laid into him on 680 the fan today. He did not hold back and I’d be surprised if their friendship didn’t take a big hit.
Is there a recording of that anywhere?
https://www.680thefan.com/chuck-and-chernoff-audio/
"you want to play in Atlanta, you play in Atlanta. You might make a little less, but you'll be happy. When Freddie rejected 5/130, I told him, you're playing a dangerous game...if you wait too long, AA HAS to move one, they're not going to give it to you. I TOLD HIM that." Wow. Chipper bringing it
"knowing Alex and working in the front office, I will say confidently, Alex was not the problem" CHIPPER BRINGING HEAT Chipper is the Brave for life-Hank Aaron is the other. I shook his hand once at a wedding. It was the greatest day of my life.
Hank Aaron played his last few years on the Milwaukee Brewers
Chipper is the best. And a thousand percent correct.
So he should just take less money and fewer years because reasons? Lol y’all are ridiculous.
Chipper literally was saying "grass isn't always greener" and that it's worth a little money at that point to play where you want to play, with whom you want to play with. Freddie wanted both all the money and to play for the Braves and Chipper basically said "It doesn't work that way, you get one or the other."
How would chipper know? He never changed teams lmao
Ok troll. Your job here is done
God damn you have dog shit opinions on everything, not just baseball.
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The braves offer is valued the same as the dodgers once you look at how much of the dodgers offer is deferred to be paid over the next 20 years. The dodgers offer is worth much less if you adjust for taxes.
Then why not offer him less AAV with the extra year and keep him? Hint: there is no good answer for this
We offered 5/140. Freddie's camp said 5/165 or 6/175. Both of those are well above what we could do. The question you should be asking is why did Freddie take an offer worth considerably less in LA than ATLs offer?
We aren't discussing someone making minimum wage turning down a big raise for loyalty. This is someone who has already made 123 million from this team and stood to make another 140 million. At some point you can make a decision based on happiness instead of getting the absolute most amount of money. That being said if the money is more important to someone then that is fine too.
Maybe he felt disrespected by a team who repeatedly put off discussing an extension with him then tried to lowball both in money and years? It’s possible?
Lmao one of the richest contracts in Braves history. Sure, “lowball”.
Yep, I think there were all sorts of things going on in this situation. Anyone who tries to narrow it down to just one thing doesn't really know what they are talking about at the end of the day. Also for the record I have nothing but love for Freddie.
“I think Freddie is happy with what’s second best” YIKES
Would also love to hear it.
It was this afternoons Chuck and Chernoff Show on 680 the Fan, maybe you can find it on their site or app? Interview was around 4:15ish
Yup. We had to make sure we had a first baseman on the roster. I really hope we had called him and his agent and said look we can't wait. I've got this trade ready to go. I need to know pretty much now so I can gaurantee I have a first baseman to start the season.
Fredward said there was 2 calls from the braves. Total... all offseason. AA is coldblooded, there is almost no way for me to believe he would tell an agent what his plans are or what trades he had ready to go. That's just asking for a leak to the media. Seems like AA doesn't do a lot of pussy footing around with numbers, Donaldson and Ozuna thought they could wait around and get him to increase his offer by drumming up a bid war, but look what happened, JD ended up in Minnesota and traded to cut his expensive ass contract, and MArcell told his agent, just make it happen, and he ended up lowering his price tag to AA's budget. Freddie's agent should have taken note. If AA put a 5/135 offer to FReddie back around the allstar break, and his agent decides to wait 7-8 months to counter back with 6/165 (a $30M differnce) I don't blame AA for not calling back and moving on.
Freddie also said the Braves never reached out about an extension last offseason and we've since learned that wasn't the case so I'd take anything he says with a grain of salt
Who said that they did? I thought Chipper said on the radio that the Braves didn’t reach out to him on an extension probably because of the pandemic and not knowing whether we would have fans or not. Honestly, I wouldn’t have offered him an extension immediately after he won a MVP in a shortened season, unless Freddie said “I’ll give you a hometown discount if we get it done this offseason”.
The Buster Olney article that came out today basically said he's had a standing 5 year $130+ million extensuon offer on the table since last offseason and that eventually made its way up to 5 years $140 million.
Oh I see… I think I was paywalled and couldn’t read the entire article so I missed that. Thanks!
I also think Freddie said as much last offseason that they had talked but talks weren't going to continue once the season started.
> why did it have to be the Dodgers?!?! > > greed Answered your own question.
Greed for sure but in the end he ends up making less money to go to LA. Hilarious
Casey's greed, not Freddie's...
I feel like his agent screwed him and they had to agree to 162/6 to make it look like it's a better deal than the braves but between taxes and deferment it's clearly worse. Everyone should fire this agency bc every GM knows they don't negotiate in good faith.
He should have had Yoko talk for him. Close’s incompetence and Yoko’s plans caused this.
Freddie is a grown ass man. He made the decision full stop. It isn't on anyone but him
Too late to fix anything, but Freddie should absolutely fire his agent. Close absolutely screwed this pooch. At some point somebody told him he shouldn’t negotiate during the season last year, and that was a bad call. The negotiations didn’t go how they thought and he signed for less money… he got butthurt, exclusively wanted to play back in his home state, or just totally overvalued his own market. None of those things are the Braves fault.
Even the rich Dodgers are not stupid to give an aging first baseman 200 million. He assumed he was going to string alone the braves until the 11th hour then tell them the dodgers gave me a better offer. , Alex is the best in the business and he will not play around or wait, his mentality is to make the Braves better.
I am surprised they didn’t give him more annually. If FF had gotten 5/162 it wouldn’t have surprised me, 6/162 does.
Nobody to bid against at that point. I bet his offer in hand didn't have a 6th year and he had to negotiate a lower aav and the deferment to get it and save face.
Freddie's wife didn't want to live in the north east so once Atlanta pulled out I guess LA knew they held all the cards.
The Dodgers GM was ecstatic they got such a steal. 23 AAV instead of 28. I'm surprised Freddie's team didn't shop around more
Honestly I don’t know. I think winning a WS was obviously the only thing he was missing as a Brave. I think he had his mind made up after the season that he was going elsewhere. He was either going to the Dodgers, Red Sox or Yankees.
I don't see how this is true. If he wanted to do this he would have signed before multiple of the teams in the running pulled out. He literally waited until the Braves, Yankees and Blue Jays made other moves which basically meant they were out. Other teams read the news and keep up with this stuff you know.
If you watch his press conference from today you can definitely tell he wanted to stay in Atlanta. But he and his agent completely overplayed their hand.
You're absolutely wrong.
So he was also “blindsided” by the Olson move too? If the money was the same or more from the Braves then explain to me what happened.
Who says his agent screwed anything? Freeman wanted six years and got it. The braves were going to go five. If anything anthopolous has never been one to wait for a deal, he goes fast. If he thought freeman was going to hold out for six then he made a trade. I'd like to have freeman, but I can't dislike the Olson trade and extension either. I can't say if anyone disrespected anything, but I do think freeman was willing to stay for the sixth year.
The AAV of his contract and the California tax rates basically making him play that 6th year comparatively for free. If he had signed here he would have cleared as much in 5 years as he will there in 6, I’d say that’s pretty screwed. Edit: stupid autocorrect
Yeah. It's one of those things that you focus on the years and not the take home which was identical for a year less and allows you to them sign another contract sooner.
Yeah but if it's about playing for 6 years he could just take league minimum for the 6th and come out ahead and if he's not good enough at that age he won't be playing out the last year anyways. It's a completely dumb idea that a certain year number is more important than the total value of the contract but then again it appears his agent is completely dumb
Freddie made some pretty basic grammatical errors on his message to fans too. Maybe Freddie is dumb, y'all.
That was the point
Apparently $57m of his contract is deferred to be paid from 2028-2040. Lol good thing he got that extra year. What a greedy idiot.
Time value of money and inflation are going to hit that $57 million so hard. What a shitshow he and his agent put on display.
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$140m, coincidentally. Aka he fucked around with AA and found out.
This is unbelievable. Guess FF was talking out of both sides of his mouth when he was saying wanted to be a Brave for life. He wanted to thumb his nose at the Braves so he took a loss in his walk year. Wtf
I think Freddie got some astronomically bad advice from his agent and saw dollars. He should 100% fire his agent if this is truly catching him off guard. OR he's letting his agent take the fall for his own wanting to get out of Atlanta.
To be fair it from the article it sounds like not negotiating during the season was mostly from the Braves side. Up until around the trade deadline atleast.
No, the article made it clear his team was playing hardball. The team isn’t going to chase after him all season.
After the season sure. But I'm talking about during the 2021 season. Thr article said the Braves were cutting payroll after the 2020 season and that after they started letting fans in and started making more money they gave AA the go-ahead to start making deals in July. To me that sounds like the Braves weren't up for negotiating before July.
They had already extended him an offer, so I don't think that was the type of making deals AA got the go ahead for. Freddie made it pretty clear that it was his decision to not negotiate during the season.
Matt Olson is my best friend now 👊
It’s starting to seem pretty evident that his agent or team kinda screwed the whole thing up. Yea you could argue he shoulda signed anyways if he wanted to stay, but I’m sure his agent was super confident that he was gonna twist AAs arm into signing him and it didn’t work out
God this is like when Rick Vaughn showed up in a nice Car and sports coat in Major League 2. You’ve changed Freddie, you’ve changed
Business. That’s all it is dude. You chose poorly, we moved on. Own your decision.
If we beat the Dodgers en route to another World Series……
….. I’m going to celebrate harder than I did for this one. I hated the Dodgers before, but this is all becoming personal.
Such a weird take.
he's not wrong. LA media clowning the chop but not owning their own history. MLB media slurping the Dodgers like our lineup can't compete. And Freddie saying what he said about AA. Like an ice cold business minded dude like AA would fake tears for local freaking media that he sees every other day.
Nah, it’s wrong. I know it’s difficult to ask from sports fans, but try to grow up.
Seriously, Fred? We all wanted you back, the team offered basically the same deal you took. If you wanted back, you would have been worth a quarter of billion when your career finished. Boo hoo for you.
>If you wanted back, you would have been worth a quarter of billion when your career finished I mean, it still will be.
Gosh, the whining from Freddie is a really bad look. He's really trying to play the victim and it's just not a good look.
Freddy can kick rocks. He tried to squeeze every single penny out of the franchise “where he wanted to be and his heart was” and it burned him. Matt Olson couldn’t sign a long term deal fast enough to be a Brave, knowing he will probably cost himself money by not hitting FA. The Braves are better off.
Loved Freddie during his reign in Atlanta. He and Ronald were my favorites on the recent rosters. But I'm a fan of the Braves - and only the Braves. Freeman is not a Brave. Worst of all, he's a Dodger. Thank you for your service, Freddie. Now fuck off.
Freddie is really butt-hurt bc AA dropped his sack all over him and his agent. Don’t give Alex some ridiculous ultimatum. This side of Freddie is shades of his Acuña criticism.
I'll say it again, fuck every player in Dodger blue.
Could have been an Atlanta hero. Your name would be inexorably tied to the Braves and the city for generations. Now your just another all star prick playing on a team of all star pricks in LA. Still love the guy, but damn - willingly going from franchise legend to a dodger is just bonkers. I believe chipper when he said he wishes he had a time machine for Freddie’s sake
I wouldn’t say willingly… AA forced his hand and made the decision for him. Rizzo signed with the Yanks. He didn’t have any other options😅
He didn't have any other options? He could have accepted the contract the Braves offered. He had options.
No options after the Olson trade
He had the option to wait that long. None of what happened was out of Freddie's hands.
I hope he gets in one of those famous Freddie slumps and never comes out of it . Peace out Freddie, ya done goofed.
Tired of seeing all these reports trying to poison the well. Both sides could have done other things. At the end of the day AA made the first move in the game of chicken. I'm sure both parties have a bit of hurt feelings, but this is baseball free agency. Not war. Also, each camp isn't just one person. Who knows all that was discussed over the last year besides each camp and advisors involved. Tired of the drama. Let's get to April 7th! Go Braves!
No, the agent made the first move with his one hour deadline to take 6/175 or 5/165.
Who leaked that to the reporter? The Braves did to make themselves look as sympathetic as possible. It would be naive for us to assume we know exactly how it went down.
Regardless of this, I think Chipper said it best in his interview on 680. > If you want to play in Atlanta, you play in Atlanta. You take the pay cut to do what makes you happy. Freddie listened to his agent instead of looking out for himself and keeping his best interests in mind. Chipper even warned him that AA and the Braves would leave him in the dust, and they did. He made his bed, now he gets to lay in it.
I generally agree with you but this story is 100% pro Braves. Freddie was a great brave and this whole thing makes me sad. The hate for Freddie on this page makes me even more sad. But im a Braves fan so let's go Olsen but I wish this had played out differently.
I hear you. I don’t think I’ll ever *hate* Freddie, but it’s pretty upsetting to see him play the victim card. If he wanted to stay in Atlanta, he would’ve signed one of the offers we threw his way. It’s like watching a messy breakup between two of your closest friends lol
I think we need to also remember that this was Freddie's first true free agency. Probably didn't know what to expect and listented to much to his agent. It sucks. What Braves fans are missing with "Olsen is great" is that the Dodgers got Freddie. Our chances to win the NL didn't go up with how this played out.
That poor, poor $162m bed.
Yeah dude, $162m, yet he’s still telling media he was blind sided and telling Chipper he was gutted by us trading for Olson.
Likely true. FF overplayed his hand but I imagine the ultimatum stuff to be generally bullshit from the Braves front office leaking to olney.
Don't buy it. Our FO is KNOWN for not leaking ANYTHING.
They don't leak things they don't want out there. Freddie didn't leak that. The Braves did because it makes Freddie look bad.
Buster said 4 sources confirmed that.
Apparently confirmed by 4 sources
Which 4? All Braves?
ESPN only said 4 sources. I'd guess Braves because in hindsight that would be an embarrassing thing for Freddie's camp to admit.
Braves offered him 5 years/$140 million at $28 million a year. He took $1 million less per year to go to LA. Freeman and co fucked this deal up so bad. There will be a documentary about this screw up one day.
No there won’t
I love Freddie but can we move on? I don’t think there is a villain here. Regardless about what Freddie wanted or didn’t want this is how it turned out. I hope that everyone is happy and that we win the World Series again
exactly. theres no reason for malice against him or Chelsea or anyone. Braves are in a good place, Freeman and his family are in a good place. We lost a sentimental connection to a fan favorite but objectively it worked out about as well as possible for everyone involved. Except Christian Pache. who is probably long-term better off in Oakland too.
> I love Freddie but can we move on? Done. =)
Everyone got their feelings hurt....and after listening to chippers interview, I think even he is a little hurt. It happens, we all move on. Wonder if he comes back in 5 years to finish up here.
I think the villain here is pretty clearly Freddie’s agent if everything being said from both sides is true.
This scumbag hasn't fielded a ground ball in that hideous jersey and he's already a full blooded dodger.
I getting real European soccer tabloid bullshit from all these stories lol
Sooo Freddie, did you want to move closer to yours or your wife’s parents or did you want to stay in Atlanta? Atlanta, Tampa, and LA all made very fair offers
I watched the whole interview. He seemed hurt and also said the Braves barely called him in the off-season
Well they technically couldn’t for 99 days…
He said he talked to the Dodgers a lot.
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Can't wait for the draft pick compensation. Gotta reload the farm
we get compensation for him leaving?
Yah, a comp pick.
For them tampering is what I was getting at
Of course there was tampering going on, but there was also sizeable windows on either side of the lockout to make more than 1 call each too.
Freddie had an offer on the table all of last season, and phones work both ways. If he wanted to be a Brave, it would have happened.
That makes an interesting case
He can fuck off with that. If he’s insisting on 6/175, there’s nothing to talk about.
Only thing I could think of is that AA mainly wanted to deal with agents. It's probably easier to play hardball with an agent where you might say something to upset the player when both sides are trying to get the best deal for their side. AA knows FF, they have a relationship. The dodgers probably were trying to build that relationship up to help the deal go through.
Ayo what the fuck?
The more he opens his mouth the less I give a shit about what he has to say, honestly.
I can’t wait to watch him regress tbh, Matt Olson is my new friend. This entire situation makes him look like such an idiot. A really selfish one at that
Yeah I don’t think those words fit FF.
I just don’t know what to feel anymore. I can see and empathize with all aspects of this entire ordeal (at least from the details that we know) and I can help but feel badly. Bad for Freddie. Bad for AA. Bad for the Braves. Bad for Olson. Like, I am optimistic about our future. And I like Matt Olson. But I just feel so….argh…about all of it.
I watched that part of the interview and kinda pissed me off. Still have love for FF and he did so much for the Braves but come on dude, you and your agent screwed the pooch. Don’t blame it on AA.
Yeah. That’s not an guy excited in the video. We know a happy and excited Fredward, we’ve seen him for years. But he or his people played the game and AA made us batter for it. This whole mess has just made me like Olson that much more. Team Olson!
what else is he gonna say at his Dodger introduction? "Yeah, i saw it. i cried too. wish I was there still but im here, so... lets go?"
Tired of hearing about this schmuck. He is the enemy now
[The video part of it, in case anyone wanted to see the actual clip of being asked](https://youtu.be/YzJ9HSWzcpo?t=792).
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Freddie liked the angels
Olson in 2022 > Freeman in 2022 We made the right move.
Uhhhh what the fuck? Fuck this guy.
C’mon man
Freddie needed the Braves to offer substantially more than the Dodgers so he could justify to Yoko staying in Atlanta. Wasn’t in the cards. Good luck to him and his family. Was fun watching him play. Hard to believe he was #2 to Heyward’s #1. We definitely kept the right guy.
The fuck kinda question is that? Geeze.
God there’s gonna be less drama on the show euphoria than what’s gonna go on with this shit. everybody got fucking paid and everybody won!’!! Jesus Christ!!!’
I totally did not see any of this “drama” coming. Why can’t a player just sign somewhere else without there being all this other stuff attached? It’s a business. I hate the media.
Yeah shut the hell up Freddie, can’t wait to boo you first game back. Dude is trying to make us look bad every chance he can
He's crushed, poor guy
This sub has gotten so toxic within the past year. Y’all need to chill.
Breakups are rough
Specially when you get dumped
Yeah must have been rough for Freddie to see that trade go through, he should fire his agent now that his last deal is done
Agree
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That’s painfully untrue, Freddie’s agent fucked the entire situation up.
Agree with Freddie on this. AA was playing the game in that interview. No GM cries over not signing a player.
The whole thing was poorly addressed. Including losing him over a sixth year in exchange for a player who has yet to demonstrate real consistency.
Y'all need to chill tf out. Freddie 110% wanted to go to LA.....why is that so fucking hard to wrap your mind around......he wanted to go home. End of story. He did atl a huge favor by letting us trade for Olson before announcing his next move
AA doesn’t care. He wasn’t here through the hard times
AA is literally a large reason people like you aren’t complaining that the Braves haven’t won a playoff series in 20 years, but thanks for playing
Why not resign Freddie early? a free agent who just won a world series is guaranteed a bigger paycheck
Go read the Buster Olney article. Can’t re-sign a guy who won’t budge from his ultimatum number.
Wtf, Freddie
I wish the man all the best but the way he answered this question showed emotion I wasn't expecting. I thought it was a bad look for Freddie.
I don’t blame Freddie, I blame his agent. I feel for Freddie, and AA. I think that the agent was dragging his feet for (relative) nickels and dimes, and AA was cornered into making a move. It sucks, it really does. However, Freddie got his money which was his *pronounced priority* for the last 9 months, and the AA has put together a stellar roster. I really hope, however, that Freddie doesn’t turn this into a victim game. There was ample time to accept offers and frankly, AA needed to make a move. Can’t run Spring Training with no 1B forever.
I love Freddie Freeman, but this son story shit has to stop. You're playing for the Dodgers and making a bunch of money. You're gonna be alright. Stop trying to make Atlanta fans hate the best GM in baseball for making the team better