For Dodgers' Trea Turner and Freddie Freeman, taking part in every single working day is section of the deal

Freddie Freeman, doing the job rigid? The moniker would rarely appear to use to a man who tends to make $27 million a yr, flies charter, stays in five-star motels and receives $100 for every diem on the road even though actively playing baseball for a dwelling.

But that’s the mindset of a veteran who has started off all of the Dodgers’ 123 game titles at very first base this season, even as his group, with a 19½-video game guide moving into Friday’s sport at Miami, cruises towards its ninth Countrywide League West title in 10 several years.

“It’s my career,” stated Freeman, who is batting .326 with a .920 on-foundation-additionally-slugging percentage, 16 homers and 79 RBIs. “I don’t come listed here to sit on the bench and gather a paycheck. I really don't believe that in that. No 1 in this world arrives to function and just sits there. If they did, they’re not heading to continue to keep their task, you know?

“That’s been my approach at any time due to the fact I got to the major leagues. I’m an personnel. My employer has a job for me to do, and I’m gonna do it.”

Freeman, 32, has a co-worker in the lunch-pail brigade. Trea Turner, 29, has begun 123 online games at shortstop for the Dodgers.

Only two other key leaguers have started off just about every sport in the industry this period, and they are also teammates who play first base and shortstop — Matt Olson and Dansby Swanson, who are at 126 video games and counting for the Atlanta Braves.

“I really don't know if it is a pleasure or an ego detail, but I truly feel like I owe it to my teammates to be out there just about every working day if I’m balanced,” mentioned Turner, who is batting .311 with an .847 OPS, 18 homers and 85 RBIs.

“If I need a breather or something’s bothering me, it’s smart for the team to acquire a working day off, but I really feel good, so I want to enjoy. This is what I get paid out to do, so I must be accomplishing it if I can.”

There is no Iron Guy competition among players who have eight All-Star Recreation selections, a most valuable player award (Freeman in 2020) and two Planet Sequence rings among them, Freeman foremost the Braves to the 2021 title and Turner assisting Washington gain in 2019. There is no helpful wager on who can go the deepest into the time without having a working day off.

Freddie Freeman operates to initially after hitting a solitary off Colorado Rockies reduction pitcher Jordan Sheffield.

(David Zalubowski / Linked Press)

It is far more a end result of the Dodgers satisfying a pledge they built when the players arrived in Los Angeles, Turner by using a trade from the Nationals past summer time and Freeman via a six-12 months, $162-million no cost-agent deal he signed in March.

“When I talked to groups in the offseason, all I questioned about was profitable, family members, and actively playing every recreation,” claimed Freeman, who performed all 162 online games in 2014 and 2018 and all 60 games in pandemic-shortened 2020 for the Braves. “The Dodgers explained, ‘If you want to engage in, you can perform.’ I stated, ‘All suitable, sounds good to me.’ ”

Turner has played 162 game titles only after in his eight-yr vocation, in 2018. He skipped 62 online games for the reason that of a correct hamstring strain and a correct wrist fracture in 2017 and 39 video games mainly because of a damaged finger in 2019, but in his to start with dialogue with Dave Roberts, he explained to the Dodgers supervisor he most popular to be in the lineup every working day.

“Yeah, that is a thing I informed them when I arrived more than final calendar year,” Turner reported. “For me, I never ever preferred off days for the reason that I felt like I always just bought double-switched into the video game in the fifth inning or had to pinch-operate or pinch-strike or participate in defense. So I never ever preferred it from that factor.

Dodgers shortstop Trea Turner prepares to toss out Miami Marlins’ Jesus Aguilar on Aug. 19 at Dodger Stadium.

(Alex Gallardo / Linked Press)

“Now it’s a very little distinctive with the [designated hitter in the National League], but I just informed them that if I come to feel fantastic, I want to enjoy. I sense unusual taking a day off.”

Equally Turner and Freeman, now entrenched in the next and third spots in the buy behind leadoff guy Mookie Betts, say actively playing every working day will help them keep their rhythm at the plate, which is evident by their performance.

Freeman leads all of baseball with 156 hits, and Turner ranks 2nd with 155 hits, as the duo seems to be to turn into only the sixth established of teammates —and 1st because Seattle’s Ichiro Suzuki and Bret Boone in 2001 — to finish a single-two in the significant leagues in hits.

They are also on speed to develop into the eighth set of teammates and to start with because Betts and Dustin Pedroia for the Boston Pink Sox in 2016 to accumulate 200 hits apiece in a season.

“Baseball is a recreation of plan and repetition,” Freeman mentioned. “If you acquire a working day off, you in no way know if that one particular working day off may knock you out of sync for a working day or a week, and then you are concentrating on seeking to get it again. … I know how my body is, how to prepare it for a recreation. I know how to get via a 162-recreation schedule.”

The gain for Roberts is that with Betts primary off, Turner and Freeman batting 2nd and 3rd, Will Smith locked into the cleanup place and Max Muncy typically hitting fifth, there is practically no guesswork in filling out the top of the lineup.

“It’s substantial,” Roberts stated of the value of his star gamers publishing. “They’re of the frame of mind that they want to be in there each day, and that is contagious. We have a large amount of great gamers. Anyone needs to be in there just about every night. It’s a large-class challenge.”

But with the Dodgers deep into the pet times of August and holders of a big league-ideal 86-37 record, would not it be smart to give Freeman and Turner a lot more time off around the last 6 months of the regular time so they are fresh new and balanced for the playoffs?

“Certain fellas just are developed physically, mentally, to play each and every day, and they work to get ready for that,” Roberts said. “I think we have finished a very good occupation when we can of getting them off their feet in specific game titles to assistance them physically and mentally. But I have no hesitation composing their names in the lineup every working day.”

Each Freeman, a left-handed-hitting slugger, and Turner, a fast correct-handed hitter, have been pulled early from lopsided games 11 situations this year, with Turner sitting down for 37 innings — the equivalent of about four games — and Freeman sitting for 34 innings of individuals online games.

“Those a few innings in a recreation could not seem like significantly, but which is 3 innings off our toes, which is an hour’s well worth of baseball,” Freeman mentioned. “It accumulates around the training course of a time. Which is like a comprehensive 3 or 4 games off.”

Freeman, Turner and Roberts are all in arrangement on when that first off working day will appear for them this time: just after the Dodgers clinch the division title.

But Freeman doesn’t envision a leisurely September as the Dodgers get ready for October. Gaining house-field benefit in the course of the playoffs, a luxurious afforded the workforce with baseball’s finest document, is a priority for him.

“If we do make the Planet Collection, I want to have household-discipline benefit, so there is that to assume about,” Freeman mentioned. “Hopefully we can earn the division soon, and I’ll get a day, but I’m Ok if I never at any time get a day.

“My body feels fantastic. I do not get treatment method any more. I never have just about anything hurting appropriate now. My position is to play baseball, and if there’s a baseball recreation, I want to play.”