Where would the Braves be if they kept Freddie Freeman? Revisionist history isn't simple

Of all the interesting and strange factoids in the 2025 World Series, consider that veteran first baseman Freddie Freeman has already played in more World Series with the Los Angeles Dodgers (two) than he did with the Atlanta Braves, where he blossomed from a 2007 second-round pick to a perennial All-Star and MVP-winning slugger.

In the end, Freeman ended his fantastic Braves tenure with a victory in the 2021 World Series, ensuring that he’d retire with at least one championship on his résumé. Nearly four years after his final game with the Braves, Freeman is closing in on a third ring, and his second with the Dodgers. Atlanta, meanwhile, hasn’t advanced past the NLDS since Freeman’s departure and just had its first losing season since 2017.

The passage of time makes it easy to wonder what might have happened had Freeman re-signed with the Braves following the 2021 season. Could the core of Freeman, Austin Riley, Ronald Acuña Jr., Ozzie Albies, and Max Fried have brought another World Series title to Atlanta? Or would the Los Angeles Dodgers still run the National League, leaving the Braves to enter each offseason pondering what their next move needed to be?

Without going too deep into an alternate history, we feel comfortable saying that, in the end, not much would have changed if Freeman remained in Atlanta.

Neither the Braves nor Freddie Freeman should regret parting ways

We certainly don’t fault any Braves fans who, after a disappointing 2025 season, have sat through October missing Freeman with every fiber of their heart and soul. And, while Freeman has two years left on the six-year, $162 million deal he signed in March 2022, who’s to say that he may not return to the Braves in 2028 for one final run?

However, there’s no use sitting around and wishing that the two sides hadn’t moved on when they did. The most important thing is that Freeman won a championship in Atlanta. That alone should have erased any doubts that Freeman will be remembered with the likes of Henry Aaron, Chipper Jones, and the three-headed monster of Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, and Tom Glavine among the all-time Braves legends.

We’re not even taking the cynical approach and proposing that Freeman might not have stayed healthy if he stuck around in Atlanta. Things are never that simple, the same way that there’s no guarantee that Freeman would have hit .310 with a .907 OPS with the Braves, just as he has with the Dodgers. 

Let’s also not forget that Matt Olson has been stellar with the Braves, batting .261 with 146 home runs, 435 RBIs, and a .859 OPS since replacing Freeman. He’s given the Braves 20.8 bWAR in that span, and the three-time All-Star remains a fearsome threat with four guaranteed seasons left on his deal. It’s not like the Braves have spent the last four years desperately trying to make something work at first base.

Whether or not you believe Freeman will eventually enter the Hall of Fame depends on your standards, though his 64.2 bWAR ranks right with the 65.0 average bWAR among Hall of Fame first basemen. His on-field accomplishments alone have likely earned him a place in Cooperstown, and you won’t find many with a bad word to say about Freeman as a person.

In the end, using the word “divorce” to describe Freeman leaving the Braves just feels wrong. It was a parting of ways, and the Truist Park crowd has regularly showered him with affection in the last four years. Revisionist history is always easy, as is 20/20 hindsight, but the bottom line is that neither side should regret how things went — and the Dodgers certainly don’t.