Everything about Freddie Freeman that comes out right now feels like a smokescreen to me. Maybe I’m being OVERLY game-play’y, but it just feels like he’s always been going to the Dodgers (clearly the Braves knew it for a long time, hence the trade for Matt Olson and the IMMEDIATE extension). So I pretty much view every rumor through the lens of, “How does this put pressure on the Dodgers and/or on Freeman?”
For example, a division rival reportedly jumping into the bidding for Freeman:
SD #Padres stay aggressive and enter bidding war for free agent first baseman Freddie Freeman https://t.co/Te0ZqWTxAX
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) March 15, 2022
I tend to think the most likely explanation here is that Freeman’s camp wants to get the Dodgers to finally get up to five years, and the Padres are more than happy to play the patsy to help make it happen.
HOWEVER, if you wanted to at least entertain the possibility that it’s real, there could be two big items of interest to the Cubs, and a couple other things to note …
1.) Getting serious on Freeman could suggest the Padres are less optimistic now on Seiya Suzuki, who is a different player at a different price tier, but absolutely nothing out there suggests the Padres could land both contracts of that size right now.
2.) Relatedly, it’s been reported repeatedly that the Padres can’t even add Suzuki (much less Freeman) until they move out some contracts (Eric Hosmer, Wil Myers). If the Padres are indeed bidding on Freeman, does that mean they already know they can move a bad contract? We would LOVE to see the Cubs acquire a nice prospect package from the Padres in exchange for taking a bad contract off their hands, and there aren’t *that* many teams that can as easily accommodate it (and would want to) as the Cubs.
3.) Of course, if the Padres don’t get Suzuki, that doesn’t mean he’s for sure signing with the Cubs. What if the Dodgers, if they were somehow to miss on Freeman, jumped on Suzuki with a huge offer?
4.) Just a little more indication that Freeman isn’t going to the Yankees, and it’s more and more likely they re-sign Anthony Rizzo.