Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman Opens Up on Scary Accident Leading to Injury
The Los Angeles Dodgers have already had two of their superstars miss time this season, despite just seven games played so far in 2025.
Mookie Betts had an unknown stomach illness that kept him out of the first two games of the regular season and caused him to lose almost 20 pounds. Freddie Freeman, who also missed the first two games of the regular season but with rib discomfort, came back for three games but has been out this week with an unusual tweak to his surgically repaired ankle.
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Manager Dave Roberts vaguely told the media that Freeman had a ‘mishap’ in the shower that led to the ankle discomfort, but the World Series MVP opened up on what led to this unusual injury.
“Halfway through my (Sunday) morning coffee, I was like, ‘Oh, I’ll just shower to get ready for the day,’” Freeman said. “And next thing you know, I’m down in the bathtub. It’s a great mental picture, if you guys want to think about it, big guy falling all over the place. … Freak accident, you can’t really make it up, crazy.
“But it was just one of those things. You slip in bathtub showers all the time. And when you’re healthy, you just catch yourself. And when you’re not, when you’ve got a little surgically repaired ankle, mostly I think it just flared everything kind of back up. I was a little sore. Sore on the inside still. But I’m feeling much better.”
Freeman is no stranger to battling through injuries, but at least for early regular season games, it is smartest to not risk anything.
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This past season featured Freeman battling through an ankle injury days before the postseason that would later require surgery, a torn rib cartilage suffered during the championship run, and a personal health scare with his son earlier in the season.
Freeman has already gone through so much, but provided some good perspective on how much worse the incident could have been.
“I literally stepped in with my right foot and it slipped. And I went down,” Freeman said. “It’s a glass door, so it could have been so much worse. I could have hit my head or something like that. So I’m very thankful that it was just a little mishap with my ankle.”
Freeman (ankle) out of lineup for 3rd straight game after shower ‘mishap’
LOS ANGELES — Freddie Freeman was not in the starting lineup for all three of the Dodgers’ games against the Braves due to a “little mishap” where he slipped entering the shower at home, aggravating his surgically repaired right ankle, manager Dave Roberts said.
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Freeman’s ankle swelled up as a result, and the Dodgers will continue to try to stay away from using him on Wednesday, although he’s not outright unavailable. He’s considered day to day, and Roberts hopes that with three rest days and a team off-day on Thursday, Freeman will be back in action when the Dodgers open a three-game set in Philadelphia on Friday.
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Roberts noted that Freeman thought he would be able to play through this latest ailment, but the star first baseman rarely wants to miss a game, regardless of how he’s feeling. The only time Roberts could remember Freeman feeling that he couldn’t play was during last year’s NL Championship Series, when he was managing the same ankle — which was badly injured at the time and eventually required surgery.
“For the most part,” Roberts said, “he’s always kicking and screaming.”
Freeman was expected to get more rest days than usual early on — much to his chagrin, as his goal every season is to play as much as possible. He also sat out the two-game Tokyo Series to open the season because he was feeling discomfort in his left rib area, another injury that he had played through last postseason.
During Spring Training, Freeman said he would likely need to manage his right ankle deep into the regular season. He is still undergoing extensive treatment on the ankle before and after games.
“It wasn’t 100 percent,” Roberts said of Freeman’s ankle before it was tweaked again in the shower. “But still, obviously the way he swung the bat — he was in a good spot.”
Freeman went 3-for-12 (.250) with two homers, a double and four RBIs in his first three games of the season.
