The Los Angeles Dodgers reversed their roster move from Sunday, bringing first baseman Freddie Freeman back from the paternity list and sending Ryan Ward back to Triple-A Oklahoma City.
Freeman missed two games to attend the birth of his first child, London Rosemary Joy.
Ward made his MLB debut with the Dodgers Sunday after receiving the call up, recording two hits and his first MLB RBI in the contest.
“It was a lot of fun,” Ward said after Sunday’s contest. “From start to finish. The butterflies were there, for sure, to start the game. They went away, though. Once the game started it was like ‘Okay, it’s just baseball,’ so it was a lot of fun to be out there.”
The outfielder turned first baseman has played in 18 games this season in Triple-A, hitting four homers and recording 14 RBIs while maintaining an OPS over 1.000. Ward will look to continue producing in the minors with a return to the top level on his mind.
Despite a relatively slow start to the year for Freeman—along with the rest of the top of the Dodgers’ lineup—he has pulled himself together over the course of the last couple weeks.
The veteran first baseman has three homers and 14 RBIs this year, and has a solid .296/.360/.519 slash line.
Prior to his departure, Freeman had logged three consecutive multi-hit games, and had one extra-base hit in each of those. He has an OPS higher than 1.000 in April, and will look to pick up exactly where he left off against the San Francisco Giants in the Dodgers’ next series.
With Freeman back from his brief leave, backup catcher Dalton Rushing is likely to see his playing time shrink once again despite his fantastic results early in the season.
He started Monday’s game in Freeman’s place, and hit two home runs towards the back end of the game.
That brought Rushing’s total on the season to seven homers in eight games, tying him for the MLB lead among catchers.
With Freeman back, Rushing will have to continue looking for opportunities behind both the aforementioned Freeman and All-Star catcher Will Smith.
The Dodgers will be happy to have Freeman back at the heart of their lineup though, and will hope he can pick up where he left off.
Now that he’s been reinstated, Freeman is likely to make his next appearance in the Dodgers’ first game of the final series in their seven-game road trip against the Giants, which starts Tuesday at 6:45 p.m. PT.
How important is having Freddie Freeman for the Dodgers as they head into yet another divisional matchup on the road?