{"id":583356,"date":"2026-02-20T19:10:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T19:10:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/583356\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T19:10:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T19:10:20","slug":"dodgers-star-wont-play-this-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/583356\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers Star Won&#8217;t Play This Weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s almost time for Dodger baseball, but fans will have to wait a few more days to see one star.<\/p>\n<p>First baseman Freddie Freeman won\u2019t be part of Los Angeles\u2019 first spring training matchups this weekend.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s instead expecting to <a href=\"https:\/\/dodgersnation.com\/dodgers-freddie-freeman-outlines-spring-training-goals\/2026\/02\/19\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">make his spring training debut on Tuesday<\/a>, in the team\u2019s fourth Cactus League game against the Cleveland Guardians.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Freddie-Freeman-celebration-Game-3-WS.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-297419\"  \/>Oct 27, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman (5) celebrates after hitting a walk off home run against the Toronto Blue Jays in the eighteenth inning during game three of the 2025 MLB World Series at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn ImagesGearing up for a Full Regular Season<\/p>\n<p>Taking it slow in spring training is part of the plan for the 36-year-old Freeman.<\/p>\n<p>Freeman, who\u2019s played in at least 100 games every season except his rookie year of 2010 (excluding the pandemic-shortened 2020 season), said his goal is to play all 162 regular season games in 2026.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Dodgers-Freddie-Freeman.jpg\" alt=\"Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman (5) reacts after the catch by center fielder Andy Pages (not pictured) in the ninth inning against the Toronto Blue Jays during game seven of the 2025 MLB World Series at Rogers Centre.\" class=\"wp-image-298710\"  \/>Nov 1, 2025; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman (5) reacts after the catch by center fielder Andy Pages (not pictured) in the ninth inning against the Toronto Blue Jays during game seven of the 2025 MLB World Series at Rogers Centre. Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s done it twice before when he was with the Atlanta Braves, though he\u2019s come awfully close a couple of times with the Boys in Blue.<\/p>\n<p>In 2022, he played in 159 regular-season games, and in 2023, he missed only a single regular season game, appearing in 161 contests.<\/p>\n<p>Freeman Wants To Be a Dodger Till the End<\/p>\n<p>Though he spent the first 12 years of his career with the Braves, Freeman wants to finish it as a Dodger.<\/p>\n<p>He already has four years under his belt in Los Angeles, and he wants to play another four.<\/p>\n<p>That would require a contract extension, as his current six year, $162 million deal only has another two years on it.<\/p>\n<p>Freeman, however, isn\u2019t focusing on that right now.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI love playing here. A lot of it is out of my control\u2014I\u2019m not focused on another contract. If they want me back, they want me back,\u201d he told the media, according to Dodgers Nation\u2019s Doug McKain.<\/p>\n<p>What do you think? Does Freddie Freeman have another four years in him?<\/p>\n<p> <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sab-icon\" src=\"https:\/\/dodgersnation.com\/path\/to\/app-icon.png\" alt=\"App icon\" onerror=\"this.style.display='none'\"\/><\/p>\n<p>LA Baseball Report<\/p>\n<p>Get the app for faster news<\/p>\n<p> <a id=\"sab-cta\" class=\"sab-cta\" href=\"#\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">GET<\/a> \u00d7  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s almost time for Dodger baseball, but fans will have to wait a few more days to see&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548808,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2406],"tags":[5,39,815,1165,4332,4333,774,57,3224,4331,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-583356","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-dodgers","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-dodgers","10":"tag-freddie-freeman","11":"tag-la","12":"tag-la-dodgers","13":"tag-ladodgers","14":"tag-los-angeles","15":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","16":"tag-losangeles","17":"tag-losangelesdodgers","18":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116104543616742750","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}