Dodgers' Freddie Freeman Nearly Played Third Base for First Time in 9 Years

The Los Angeles Dodgers are no strangers to having players move all around the diamond as needed. Just a few years ago, they moved Mookie Betts, a Gold Glove outfielder, to play shortstop, and the decision has worked out quite nicely.

They wanted to make that decision, though.

In the first game of the Dodgers' series against the Miami Marlins, Los Angeles was almost forced to make some unwanted defensive changes.

After exhausting the bench while the team tried to make a comeback late in the game, manager Dave Roberts was left with little choice about how to line up his defense.

Roberts said if Monday night's game went to extra innings, he would had to move first baseman Freddie Freeman to third base, a position he last played nine years ago for just a couple weeks. Luckily for the Dodgers, it didn't need to happen, because the team won on a walk-off hit by Kyle Tucker.

“Yeah, I would have put Freddie at third and then [Max] Muncy was gonna slide over to second base and then Dalton [Rushing] was gonna be at first base," Roberts said.

Freeman hasn't played at third base since 2017 while with the Atlanta Braves, so this would have been quite an adjustment. The veteran was happy to make the move to help the team win, but the anxiety inside him was very real.

“My heart started racing a little bit,” Freeman said to the California Post after the game. “It’s been nine years since I played there.”

The biggest issue for Freeman wasn't just the act of playing third base, but rather the situation he would have been placed in. If he had been forced to take over at third, it would have been in the top of the 10th inning, with a guy on second base due to the extra inning rules.

“I would have been fine if it was like the sixth inning and no one was on,” Freeman said.

Freeman didn't want to mess up the game for the Dodgers due to his lack of experience at the position. But thankfully, he never got placed into the situation thanks to Tucker.

So in the end, it's a funny story Freeman gets to laugh about. If it did happen, though, teammate Miguel Rojas believes the Marlins would have immediately bunted to Freeman at third base.

“And I was gonna bare-hand it,” Freeman said, “and throw it right into the stands.”

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