Freddie Freeman’s Atlanta Braves path could be like Yadier Molina’s with Cardinals

Think all the way back to last offseason. Think back to a time before the Atlanta Braves had won the World Series and there was any talk of Freddie Freeman leaving the Braves in free agency. It may seem like a lifetime ago but, if you can remember back that far, you’ll remember the tale of long-time St. Louis Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina doing the free agent dance before eventually returning to the Cardinals.

Are the similarities between the Atlanta Braves talks with Freddie Freeman and last offseason’s discussions between the St. Louis Cardinals and Yadier Molina?

Looking back, as the pandemic-shortened 2020 MLB season came to a close, St. Louis Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina became a free agent. Choosing not to resign immediately with the Cardinals, there were plenty of discussions about where Molina might land with a deal, including the New York Yankees and other teams.

However, at the end of all of the rumors and what if’s and what could be’s, Molina ended up back in St. Louis … to the absolute surprise of no one. He had checked out the options and believed St. Louis was the best place for him. Despite all of the worrying that Cardinals fans did during that time about where Molina could end up, he ended up back with the only team for which he had ever suited up.

The path could be very similar for Freeman, who has plenty of rumors connecting him to other teams but has already expressed his desire to stay in Atlanta and, as I recently wrote, even said to Ronald Acuña Jr. after Atlanta captured its title that he wanted to make another run at the World Series this season as Acuña Jr. returned from his knee injury.

Sure, Freeman could leave for another team before next season begins, but is this all just a dance leading to the inevitable that he’ll be back with the Braves in the same unsurprising way that Molina made his return to the Cardinals? It certainly feels like a story with many of the same threads.

And yes, Molina’s one-year contract was much easier to swallow for St. Louis than the six-year deal it could take to keep Freeman around, and there are payroll hurdles to clear. However, it just feels like, on a number of levels, Freeman returning to the Braves is inevitable after the current MLB lockout ends.

Braves fans will enter the New Year with plenty of wonder about what could be with one of the faces of their franchise in 2022. However, Yadier Molina provides an easy, recent example of exactly how the Freddie Freeman free agent saga could play out for the defending World Champions.