LOS ANGELES — After playing for a week with a hairline fracture in the middle finger of his right hand, Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman is not in the lineup for Tuesday’s series opener against the Orioles at Dodger Stadium.
This is the classic use of a scheduled off day to pair with a rest day to get two days off for the price of only one game. Except that days off are quite rare for Freeman, who ranks second in the majors in games played since the start of the 2018 season, averaging 159 games played per 162, trailing only Marcus Semien.
Freeman was not doing his usual prep work on the field before batting practice on Tuesday.
“He wants to be in there, understandably,” manager Dave Roberts said Tuesday. “I think each day can only help, not having to prepare each day to hit. Where we’re at right now, I just don’t want this thing to linger. If we can calm down, we’ll be in a better spot.”
Freeman is available off the bench for the series opener, but possibly only in a nominal sense. There’s a chance, Roberts said, that Freeman might be out of the lineup for multiple games in this series, depending on how he feels.Freeman jammed his finger on a ground ball against the Cardinals on August 17, and later exited that game, and sat during the series finale the next day. Last week, Freeman had three hits in 23 at-bats (.130) with two doubles, two walks, and seven strikeouts.
There are no plans at the moment to place Freeman on the 10-day injured list, as this will be something Freeman has to play through until the fracture fully heals, which is expected to take four to six weeks. In other words through anywhere from mid-September to the end of the regular season.
“He could have played today, he wanted to play,” Roberts said. “I just don’t think the IL makes a whole lot of sense right now, because even in 10 days the fracture is not going to heal.
“I still believe that giving it some time to calm down, and not playing, there’s only benefit.”
Kiké Hernández starts at first base for the Dodgers on Tuesday for the Dodgers, with Max Muncy remaining at third base. Roberts said because this is expected to be a short-term rest for Freeman, he didn’t want to put Muncy at first — where he played in 2021 and was a Gold Glove finalist — because he hasn’t really taken any grounders at the position for over two years.
