Freddie Freeman ended the 2024 season — albeit triumphantly — battling injuries, and his 2025 season is starting off on the same note.
The 2024 World Series MVP was scratched from the lineup Tuesday due to left rib discomfort ahead of the Dodgers’ 4-1 season-opening win over the Cubs in the Tokyo Series.
Freeman had been slated to hit third and man first base, but veteran Kiké Hernandez replaced him.
The 35-year-old Freeman reportedly took batting practice before Tuesday’s game before being removed from the starting nine, an indication that the injury flared up right before the game.
It’s a non-ideal start for Freeman coming off a 2024 season in which he played his fewest games since 2017 — he still managed 147 appearances — due to a late-season ankle injury.
That ankle injury plus a rib issue hampered him in the playoffs, and even kept him out of the lineup against the Mets in Game 4 of the NLCS, but he didn’t let the ailments slow him during the World Series.
Freeman’s walk-off grand slam off Nestor Cortes in the 10th inning of Game 1 against the Yankees set the tone for the Fall Classic and he won MVP honors for hitting .300 with four homers, 12 RBIs and a 1.654 OPS while the Dodgers disposed of the Yankees in five games.
The first baseman ultimately had offseason ankle surgery on that right ankle.
This season marks his fourth with Los Angeles and it speaks to the Dodgers’ insane depth that a pair of former MVPs in Freeman and Mookie Betts (illness) could both miss this game and they hummed along.
The Dodgers scored three runs in the fifth while trailing, 1-0, to grab the lead for good and Yoshinobu Yamamoto earned the win behind five innings of one-run ball.
New closer Tanner Scott tossed a perfect ninth in his team debut to record the save.
The teams meet again Wednesday for the second game in the two-game stint.
