Braves GM insists his tears over losing Freddie Freeman to Dodgers were real

Alex Anthopoulos stated he was too busy Friday to tune in to Freddie Freeman’s introductory information convention as a Dodger. By the tip of the day, the Atlanta Braves’ president of baseball operations had struck a take care of former Dodgers nearer Kenley Jansen to finish an oblique trade of franchise cornerstones between the groups.

However Anthopoulos noticed clips of Freeman’s introduction. And he observed Freeman’s seething frustration with the Braves. At one level, Freeman was requested if he had watched the clip of Anthopoulos choking up speaking to media final Monday after he acquired first baseman Matt Olson to unofficially finish Freeman’s time in Atlanta.

“I noticed ‘em,” Freeman stated. “Yup. That’s all I’ll say.”

The terse reply got here with an underlying message: Freeman, at finest, didn’t look after the tears — if he thought they had been actual in any respect. He stated the Braves’ determination to amass Olson “blindsided” him. He thought it was an unjustifiably chilly transfer.

On Sunday, Anthopoulos insisted the tears had been actual. He extolled the 2020 Nationwide League Most worthy participant for his play on the sphere and presence off it. He described Freeman as “a accomplice in loads of methods” whom he generally seen as an assistant common supervisor. He credited Freeman for his starring position in his four-year run of success main the Braves’ entrance workplace.

“On the finish of the day, he’s going to be a Courageous endlessly,” stated Anthopoulos, who labored within the Dodgers’ entrance workplace for 2 years earlier than becoming a member of the Braves in November 2017. “It’s a wave of feelings. Identical to he stated. Everybody’s human. You might have a wave of feelings. You’re not human in case you don’t have emotion, proper?

“It’s a tragic day, regardless of the way you slice it up. For our clubhouse, for our followers, for me personally. And that’s being human and that’s simply the fact of it. And you may’t be with somebody for 4 years and develop near them and undergo what we’ve been by way of collectively and never have feelings.”

In distinction, Jansen on Sunday stated he left the Dodgers on good phrases after regular communication with crew officers.

In Freeman’s model of occasions, the Braves’ ultimate formal extension supply got here on the commerce deadline final season. He stated crew officers referred to as him simply twice in the course of the offseason — as soon as earlier than the lockout and as soon as after. He was then shocked when he noticed the Braves traded for Olson and rapidly give him an eight-year contract extension.

Anthopoulos disputed Freeman’s account with out going into particulars.

“I don’t have the info the identical method,” Anthopoulos stated. “However I wasn’t coping with Freddie, so I can’t communicate to the place he’s getting his info from. I do know Freddie. He’s bought a coronary heart of gold. He’s accountable. He’s sincere and we simply don’t have the identical info. And that’s OK. However I wasn’t coping with him straight.”

It’ll be remembered as an unsightly divorce between a franchise and one in every of its icons. Freeman will flip the web page for good Tuesday in his Cactus League debut with the Dodgers. He’ll see his former crew when the Braves go to Los Angeles for a three-game collection in mid-April and once more when the Dodgers go to Atlanta in late June.

An October conflict, the fourth in fifth years between the golf equipment, would function a becoming ultimate chapter.

“He’s in an unbelievable place,” Anthopoulos stated. “It’s a tremendous group. It’s a tremendous metropolis. It’s a tremendous group of individuals — from the coaches, the supervisor, the entrance workplace, the overall supervisor, the possession group, the president. I imply, I do know these folks. It’s an outstanding place to be with a perennial contender and an unimaginable membership.

“And what he’s finished in Atlanta, for Atlanta, that needs to be honored and revered endlessly.”