Freddie Freeman’s former agent has fired back at Doug Gottlieb after he walked back that infamous report about a last-minute offer from the Atlanta Braves.
Remember that story about Freddie Freeman getting a last-minute offer from the Atlanta Braves this offseason that his agent allegedly never told him about?
Yeah, about that. Turns out it wasn’t totally true.
If you missed it, Freddie Freeman left the Atlanta Braves this offseason after having spent the entirety of his career there. Freeman’s 11-year tenure with the Braves culminated in a World Series victory in 2021, but he left in free agency to join the Los Angeles Dodgers. As heartbreaking as it was for fans, it seemed the split was understood as unavoidable by both sides.
Sports commentator Doug Gottlieb, however, reported back in June that the Braves delivered a final contract offer to Freeman’s agent who refused to pass it along to his client so as to not block the pending deal with the Dodgers since Freeman was reported to have wanted to stay in Atlanta. It was a gut punch and a knife twist all at once for Braves fans, and Freeman’s agent Casey Close was soon fired.
Well, months after the dust settled, Gottlieb has walked back that report.
Gottlieb released a statement on Wednesday recanting his report over the alleged drama. The reason for it isn’t anything ethical, rather it’s to try and shake the lawsuit that Close filed against him a few months ago.
"I prematurely reported on these events and simply got it wrong."
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) September 7, 2022
Doug Gottlieb, who is being sued by agent Casey Close for his tweet about the Freddie Freeman negotiations, says "the conduct I alleged did not occur and there is no credible basis for stating that it did." https://t.co/L6KCbMRq4E
It didn’t take long for Close to release a statement of his own:
Statement from Casey Close: https://t.co/WohfDaZ0v7 pic.twitter.com/mUFeWkJwxJ
— Robert Murray (@ByRobertMurray) September 7, 2022
Aside from maybe getting Gottlieb out of legal hot water, this whole epilogue doesn’t really solve anything. It might make Braves fans feel better about how close or not Freeman was to re-signing, but he’s still in Los Angeles, not Atlanta.