Freddie Freeman’s lack of MVP buzz is a crime against baseball

Freddie Freeman needs way more recognition for his 2020 NL MVP campaign.

We can no longer deny Freddie Freeman from being in the 2020 NL MVP conversation.

Freeman has been the face of the Atlanta Braves since 2013 after his mentor Chipper Jones retired. For the last eight years, Freeman has essentially gotten out of bed and hit .300. The four-time NL All-Star, 2018 Gold Glove winner and 2019 Silver Slugger is putting together his finest season as a professional.  Just look at his stats put together by David O’Brien of The Athletic.

Freddie Freeman has been the steadiest part of the Braves’ awesome offense.

For a while there, the Braves’ dark horse NL MVP candidate was left-handed pitcher Max Fried. He was so dominant out of the gate that he had to go on IL for back spasms for carrying this god awful monstrosity of a rotation. It is improving, but not everyone’s kid can be an honor student. But since Fried went down a week and change ago, it has been Freeman who has shined the most.

He leads the NL in batting average (.352), doubles (18) and runs batted in (46). His OBP (.465) and OPS (1.118) are second in baseball, as he’s also third in the sport in walks (35). Though other Braves have dug the long ball more than him this season in teammates Adam Duvall (15) and Marcell Ozuna (14), Freeman still goes to 11 and is playing the slickest defense ever at first.

Atlanta is 29-20 through 49 games with a 3.5 game lead over the Miami Marlins (24-22) for first place in the NL East. If the season ended today, the Braves would have the No. 3 seed in the NL postseason, taking on the No. 6-seeded St. Louis Cardinals (21-22) for a three-game series at Truist Park. Even though it’s a short season, Atlanta’s potential three-peat has been impressive.

Freeman is arguably the most notable star to contract the coronavirus before the season started. He got it so bad that fellow team leader Nick Markakis briefly opted out of the 2020 campaign. The lingering affects of this virus could have zapped the Braves’ first baseman of all of his energy. Instead, he’s dominating baseball and taking the time to watch his three-year-old play teeball.

We’re only getting 60 games this season, but Freeman has a chance to average a run batted in per ball game. That has to mean something, right? He’d be the Braves’ first NL MVP since Jones won it back in 1999. Since moving to Atlanta in 1966 only Dale Murphy (1981-82), Terry Pendleton (1991) and Jones (1999) have won NL MVP. The Braves won the NL pennant during the last two.

And that’s really the microcosm of why he still may not win NL MVP in his age-30 season. He plays in the same NL featuring the juggernaut Los Angeles Dodgers and the Slam Diego Padres. Both NL West rivals will be playoff bound too, but are a few games up in the NL standings over the Braves. This is the Dodgers’ year to win it all and the Padres have been the story in the NL thus far.

The two candidates Freeman has to usurp in the Braves’ final nine games are Padres shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. and Dodgers rightfielder Mookie Betts. Other guys like Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager, Ozuna and an extreme dark horse candidate in Washington Nationals shortstop Trea Turner could all be in the mix as well. For Freeman, he has to be better than Betts and Tatis.

Freeman will win his second Silver Slugger, possibly his second Gold Glove too, as the Braves defense has been spectacular this year all across the diamond. It’s been a big reason the team can routinely overcome its eyesore of a starting rotation. He will finish in the top 10 in NL MVP voting for the fifth time in eight years, very likely in the top three. Who knows? Maybe he does win it?

Freeman may not win NL MVP, but he absolutely has to be at the very top of its conversation.