Freddie Freeman overcoming knee injury before Dodgers playoffs…
To Freddie Freeman, two years in the past was “100 times worse.”
And if he may discover his swing then, he’s confident of doing so again now.
Freeman’s 2024 postseason, in fact, has turn out to be club legend at this point. How he performed by means of ankle and rib accidents. How he slumped by means of the first couple rounds in his severely diminished state. And how, after per week off before that yr’s Fall Classic, he tweaked his swing and produced considered one of the most memorable performances in World Series historical past — highlighted by his iconic walk-off grand slam in additional innings of Game 1 at Dodger Stadium.
This time, Freeman thinks the same turnaround may very well be a lot more simple, despite battling another bodily ailment down the stretch this common season with patellar tendonitis in his proper knee.
Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman (5) hits a single during the ninth inning against the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park in San Francisco, Friday, September 25, 2026. IMAGN IMAGES by way of Reuters Connect
Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman hits walk-off grand slam in Game 1 of the 2024 World Series, after playing by means of knee and rib accidents earlier that postseason. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post
“I truly feel good right now, physically,” Freeman said on Tuesday, during a video convention with reporters ahead of the Dodgers’ first pre-National League Division Series bye week workout. “So it’s on me now to figure out the mechanics of the swing in the next five days. And I have all the confidence in myself that I will figure that out by [Game 1 on] Saturday.”
At the start of September, Freeman appeared to be on the proper observe.
The former MVP was sporting a .300 batting common, carrying out his main preseason aim. He had seemed more cell at first base for a lot of the yr, a byproduct of constant health in his age-36 campaign. And though he was mired in an influence drought, going 47 games between dwelling runs at one point, he had nonetheless remained a key contributor in the coronary heart of the Dodgers’ star-studded batting order.
Then, just as the stretch run began to warmth up, Freeman’s proper knee abruptly started to harm.
There was nobody play that precipitated the veteran slugger’s injury (not less than not that he has pinpointed publicly). He tried to downplay the severity of the issue, despite lacking a handful of games during the center of the month.
But it nonetheless triggered a stoop that put Freeman’s postseason productiveness into query, making him maybe the club’s largest query mark after a equally banged-up Shohei Ohtani.
“[The injury is] affecting him,” supervisor Dave Roberts said last week. “So how can he sort of navigate being compromised?”
Los Angeles Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman appears on from the dugout during the second inning of a game against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. Getty Images
For a lot of September, Freeman struggled to seek out a solution.
On Sept. 2, he snapped his long-ball drought in a two-hit performance that raised his season-high common to .306 and his OPS to .850. After that, he spiraled right into a three-week stoop for the the rest of the common season, going 12-for-72 (.167) over his final 18 games.
His final full-season numbers: a .288 common (his second-lowest mark since 2015), a .792 OPS (the lowest of his profession excluding his 20-game cameo as a rookie in 2010) and just 16 dwelling runs (another profession low for a full-length season).
Freeman tried to tweak his swing a few occasions during that stretch, at one point specializing in catching the ball farther out in entrance looking for more pull energy.
The one factor he didn’t do, however, was put the blame solely on his latest bodily drawback.
“I’m not going to make an excuse. I will never blame my knee,” he insisted after Sunday’s regular-season finale. “I didn’t play very well, and that’s just how it is. It’s on me now in the next five days to figure out my swing and be prepared for Saturday.”
By Tuesday, Freeman sounded optimistic about that mission.
Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman hits a single in the fourth inning against the San Francisco Giants, Sunday, September 20, 2026, at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. IMAGN IMAGES by way of Reuters Connect
He reiterated that “my body feels good” and maintained his stance that “I just didn’t play well the last couple months of the season.”
“Did I have some ailments in my knees? Yes, I did,” he said. “I don’t know how much that attributed to subconsciously trying to do stuff where it didn’t hurt as much … so maybe I created bad habits. But I won’t blame it on that. I just played bad. My knee is in a good spot now. That’s why the bye week is huge.”
Indeed, Freeman has a particular plan for the next couple days — not only in how many swings he’ll take (which may very well be upward of 400 between the batting cages, on-field batting observe and live BP classes, he said) however also in how he’ll go about recalibrating his mechanics.
“I’m gonna try what I used in the World Series in ’24,” Freeman said, referencing a “step-out” psychological cue that impacts how he crops his entrance foot and is meant to stop him from slicing his swing across the plate.
“That’s the thought going in today, and I’m very confident that that’s gonna help get things back in line throughout the course of the week.”
It definitely labored two years in the past, when a clearly hampered Freeman went 7-for-32 before the Fall Classic, then emerged from his off-week reset by going 6-for-20 with 4 dwelling runs in the World Series to earn MVP honors.
The Dodger Stadium crowd reacts as Freddie Freeman hits a walk-off grand slam in Game 1 of the 2024 World Series. JASON SZENES/NEW YORK POST
Freddie Freeman celebrates along with his Dodgers teammates after his walk-off grand slam in Game 1 of the 2024 World Series. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post
And the fact that Freeman already claims to really feel considerably better bodily has fueled optimism round the team that the worst of his struggles are behind him.
“I think that it is a mechanical thing with Freddie,” Roberts said, “and I do think that having five days to work through it gets him back to close to 100% — which I think he will be.”
The Dodgers may clearly use that version of the 10-time All-Star. If he and Ohtani (who the Dodgers also continue to insist is bettering from his proper arm and left knee accidents) are struggling at the top of their lineup, it may scuttle the team’s not too long ago resurgent offense.
“Personally, it’s huge for me that I got five days to really work on mechanics,” Freeman said.
It paid off two Octobers in the past. He’s relying on the same rebound this yr.
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