He will not be playing in the World Baseball Classic this March.
Freddie Freeman of Team Canada scores a run in the third inning during Game 3 of Pool C between Team Great Britain and Team Canada at Chase Field on Sunday, March 12, 2023 in Phoenix, Arizona.With Freeman absent, Mariners first baseman Josh Naylor will likely start in the former MVP’s place during the tournament.
It’s unclear what exactly prompted Freeman to drop from the WBC, but the first baseman has previously indicated that he wanted to play for Team Canada in the spring but was dealing with “a little bit of a health issue,”that despite Freeman wanting to participate, Canada manager Ernie Whitt said that it was not set that he could play, and that he was having “some procedures done.” The exact details of Freeman’s health issues are unknown, but the nine-time All-Star did suffer a few injuries this past MLB season, including lingering ankle problems that carried over from his 2024 season. Freddie Freeman of the Los Angeles Dodgers holds his kids after defeating the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 in game seven of the 2025 World Series at Rogers Center on November 2, 2025 in Toronto, Ontario.Freeman — who is from California but holds Canadian citizenship through his parents — has represented Canada twice in his professional baseball career during the 2017 and 2023 WBCs. Despite injuries, Freeman put up an impressive 2025 campaign for the Dodgers, posting a slash line of .295/.367/.502 along with 39 doubles and 24 home runs, and helped Los Angeles capture its second straight World Series title. Back in December, Freeman opened up about what it meant for him to win the World Series in Canada, referencing his late mother, who is from Toronto, as to what made the experience so special for him. “Every time I go back to Toronto, I always have little butterflies in my stomach because it’s a place where my mom grew up, was born and raised, worked in office buildings in downtown Toronto and things like that,”“So you just feel a little bit closer to her, and I always seem to play pretty well when I go up there. It’s not about playing well, it’s about, ‘Man, this is cool. I’m in a place where my mom was 50, 60 years ago.’ “It’s just those little moments and it takes your mind off what you’re trying to do and what you face. It’s, ‘This is cool. I’m in a place where my mom grew up.’ To be honest, when we won it there, I didn’t think, ‘Oh, I just won in my mom and dad’s home country.’ It was, we won.”
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