PHOENIX — Freddie Freeman can see the finish line now, even if it’s far away. This marks the start of his 17th big-league season and his fifth with the Los Angeles Dodgers, after thinking he’d spend his whole career with the Braves. Freeman’s contract is already more than halfway complete, with time passing quickly and his production on the field largely remaining the same.
Still, Freeman sees the reality. He has two years left on the six-year, $162 million stunner he signed with the Dodgers fresh out of the lockout in 2022. He’d like to keep playing for two more years after that. It would be his 20th season in the majors. He turns 40 in September 2029.
Freeman needs 569 hits to become the 34th member of the 3,000-hit club; with four more solid seasons, he could get there.
“Four is just a number that’s floated,” Freeman said Thursday. “Is it less? Is it more? I don’t know. … I do love this game. I love playing it. But for me, if I can do four (more years), that’ll be 20 years. I think that’s enough.”
Freeman hit .295 last year, just shy of his desired .300. “And that irks me,” Freeman said. But he remained one of baseball’s most productive first basemen, even during a 2025 season spent playing with a heavy wrap on his surgically repaired right ankle. This, after playing through that ankle injury — and a broken finger, and torn rib cartilage — to win World Series MVP honors in 2024.
Freddie Freeman again today “floated” the idea of playing four more years, which would lead him to retire at age 40 after 20 big league seasons. Didn’t want to openly campaign for another contract (he’s signed through 2027) but added he would like for it to come in Los Angeles.
— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) February 19, 2026
Nicks and bruises pile up. The Dodgers know this. That’s why Freeman, like several of the team’s veterans who have opened the season overseas and played through the World Series for two consecutive seasons, is expected to ease slowly into 2026. He won’t make his Cactus League debut until Tuesday. Freeman said he and the organization devised a schedule to get him approximately 47 plate appearances during spring training.
Some habits still die hard. Freeman’s offseason rest lasted just a handful of days after Game 7 of the World Series before he started to swing again.
Again, the Dodgers have talked openly about giving him more days off, because everything with this organization centers on October. Getting Freeman off his feet could create more at-bats for prospect Dalton Rushing as he looks to find his footing in the big leagues.
That said, Freeman still wants to play 162 games.
“When that day comes or the night comes where they say, ‘We’re going to give you tomorrow off,’ I will fight that battle and most likely lose,” Freeman said. “But I want to play every game. You guys know that. As I’ve gotten older, I try not to think about that. But they are looking out for the best interests of me, and I do understand that. So if they want to give me (a day), I’ll just say yes.”
Freeman ranked third among first basemen in FanGraphs WAR last year, and was the fourth-best hitter at his position by wRC+ (140). If he can continue to hold off the effects of age, it becomes easier to envision a world where he keeps going.
Continuing his career until 40 means he will need to secure a new contract. He did not spend Thursday afternoon agitating for an extension, but the desire to eventually get one was clear. Freeman is under contract through 2027. If he’s going to keep going beyond that, he’d like that to be in Los Angeles.
That would have been hard to envision when Freeman inked the deal four years ago. He shed tears over his departure from Atlanta. He was on pace to get a statue there before the Southern California product wound up back home. By the time Freeman captured the World Series MVP hardware in 2024, his father, Fred, declared, “He feels like a Dodger now.”
Now, it doesn’t seem Freeman wants that to change.
“I would like that,” he said. “I love being here. I’m from Southern California. I’ve had a great time with fans. You guys treat me great. Everyone’s treating my family good. So that’s out of my control. I’m not worried about another contract, not going to bring it up, not going to talk about it. I have two years left. I’m just an employee. I just do my job, and if they want me back, they want me back. But I think Andrew (Friedman) and everyone knows that I love being here. So whatever happens, happens.”
His performance will likely have something to do with that.
“(If I can play) like I think I can play, and match the production at the plate, then maybe Andrew and Mark (Walter) and all them will want me around,” Freeman said.
