Freeman slipped in the shower on Saturday and tweaked the right ankle he had surgery on in December. Kiké Hernández starts at first base against the Braves on Monday night.
Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman is not in the starting lineup on Monday night against his former team, sitting to open the series opener against the Braves at Dodger Stadium.
Freeman aggravated the right ankle that he had surgery on in December, after playing through an ankle sprain through the postseason. The injury came Saturday night while slipping in the shower, manager Dave Roberts told reporters on Monday afternoon.
“He had a little mishap in the shower, entering the shower in the bathtub. He slipped,” Roberts said, as shown on SportsNet LA. “Day to day, it swelled up a little bit, not able to play tonight.”
Monday will mark the third time in six regular season games that Freeman is out of the lineup, after he sat for the two games in Tokyo after feeling left rib discomfort, which was an aggravation of another injury from last October.
Tonight’s #Dodgers lineup vs. Braves: pic.twitter.com/zBuyeuCKil
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) March 31, 2025
Freeman played all three games against the Tigers over the weekend, and all three of his hits went for extra bases, with two home runs and a double. He drove in four runs in three games against Detroit.
With Freeman out, Kiké Hernández starts at first base as he did in both games against the Cubs in Japan. Hernández himself did not play any of the three games against the Tigers over the weekend while dealing with a stomach illness. Hernández did not come to the ballpark on Thursday, but he was present on both Friday and Saturday though he did not play.
It’s been a busy pregame for player news in this series. Braves outfielder Jurickson Profar was suspended 80 games by Major League Baseball for testing positive for Chorionic Gonadotrophin (hCG), a performance enhancing substance, the same drug Manny Ramírez tested positive for while with the Dodgers in 2009.
In addition, pitcher Reynaldo López was placed on the 15-day injured list by Atlanta with right shoulder inflammation. López was originally slated to start Wednesday’s series finale — the game with the weird start time — but that start will instead by to Bryce Elder, who was recalled from Triple-A Gwinnett on Monday.