The Dodgers announced this first baseman today Freddie Freeman underwent surgery on his right ankle “which consisted of debridement and removal of free body parts.” They added that Freeman is “expected to be able to participate in baseball activities during spring training,” although it is unclear how much of an impact his offseason will be.

Freeman’s ankle injury has been a key issue in recent months. He suffered a sprain in late September in one of the final regular season games of the 2024 season, making Freeman’s status in the postseason a frequent topic of conversation.

He continued to hold a place in the club’s squad as it progressed from round to round, but was clearly not playing at 100%. With Shohei Ohtani Freeman even had to take the field several times in the designated hitter slot, even though he was obviously playing with pain. In the postseason, he revealed that in addition to the sprain, he also suffered from a bone bruise and would have missed four to six weeks had the problem occurred during the regular season. As if that wasn’t enough, ESPN’s Jeff Passan later reported that Freeman suffered a fractured rib cartilage in his sixth rib just as the postseason began, which would normally require a months-long absence.

Despite these issues, Freeman enjoyed a postseason for the ages. He wasn’t great in the NLDS or NLCS, but became an absolute supernova in the World Series. He hit a walkoff grand slam, the first in World Series history, to lead off the Dodgers in Game 1. He then hit a home run in the next three games. He set a World Series record with 12 runs batted in and hit .300/.364/1.000, helping the Dodgers win the title and earning World Series MVP honors in the process.

Unsurprisingly, attention has now shifted to getting him healthy for 2025 and it was determined that surgery was necessary. It appears he will have enough time to be healthy next year, although it wouldn’t be disastrous for the Dodgers if he ran into some issues and had to miss some time at the start of the 2025 season. Third baseman Max Muncy is able to play first base while multi-position players like this Miguel Rojas or Chris Taylor could cover the hot corner.