The Athletic reveals first baseman Braves pursued as Freddie Freeman pivoted to Dodgers

In just a few short years, Freddie Freeman has established himself as one of the best Los Angeles Dodgers in recent memory. Four All-Star nods, two rings, and a World Series MVP trophy will earn you that kind of legacy.

It's something of a miracle that he's become so synonymous with this era of the LA's success, seeing as he was a Braves legend prior to his free agency tour in 2022. Across 12 seasons in Atlanta, he won his first championship and his lone MVP, and it seemed impossible that he'd leave his home after so much success... until he did.

The Braves, of course, pivoted to Matt Olson once the Dodgers signed Freeman, and that's about as good of a consolation prize as you could ask for. His 23.1 WAR since 2022 actually outpaces Freeman's total (21.4) and he literally hasn't missed a game in a half-decade.

However, it turns out that Olson wasn't actually the Braves' immediate plan to replace a franchise icon. Instead, that honor went to Anthony Rizzo.

Braves made the right call in replacing Freddie Freeman, though the Dodgers are still clear winners

Leading up to that 2021-22 offseason, the Braves had just won the World Series, the Dodgers' streak of eight consecutive NL West titles was snapped (despite 106 regular-season wings), and Rizzo had been traded as part of the Chicago Cubs' fire sale at the trade deadline.

That was already a lot to balance, but then the league went into a four-month shutdown during a CBA-related lockout. Once the work stoppage finally ended, teams and players worked furiously to sign deals before a truncated spring training began.

The Dodgers benefitted from the chaos by landing Freeman on an eminently reasonable six-year, $162 million deal, a result of the Braves and Yankees both bowing out of his market. Though both parties ended up with Olson and Rizzo, respectively, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic shone some additional light on the process in a recent article.

Once the Dodgers raised their bid to an uncomfortable level, Atlanta apparently approached Rizzo about a short-term contract to take over at first base. Rosenthal reported that "the parties did not get close to a deal," primarily because the Braves wouldn't give Rizzo the opt-out he desperately craved, but it's clear that he was their initial backup plan.

All's well that ends well, seeing as the Yankees made a World Series with Rizzo (in 2024) and the Braves have gotten MVP-caliber production out of Olson. That's not to suggest that the Dodgers aren't the clear winners from this whole fiasco -- two rings in four years is a pretty tough results to beat -- but at least no one can complain that they didn't get their money's worth from the great first baseman migration of 2022.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow