{"id":400200,"date":"2026-01-11T01:24:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T01:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/400200\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T01:24:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T01:24:11","slug":"freddie-freeman-withdraws-from-world-baseball-classic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/400200\/","title":{"rendered":"Freddie Freeman withdraws from World Baseball Classic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Freddie Freeman will not be playing in the World Baseball Classic this March.<\/p>\n

Freeman, 36, has withdrawn from representing Canada in the tournament for \u201cpersonal reasons,\u201d Sportsnet reported on Saturday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Relief pitcher Jordan Romano is also ruled out of the tournament, per the outlet.<\/p>\n

\"TeamFreddie 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. MLB Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

With Freeman absent, Mariners first baseman Josh Naylor will likely start in the former MVP\u2019s place during the tournament.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s 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 \u201ca little bit of a health issue,\u201d Baseball Canada said in December<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Athletic also reported<\/a> 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 \u201csome procedures done.\u201d<\/p>\n

The exact details of Freeman\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\"FreddieFreddie 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. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Freeman \u2014 who is from California but holds Canadian citizenship through his parents \u2014 has represented Canada twice in his professional baseball career during the 2017 and 2023 WBCs.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time I go back to Toronto, I always have little butterflies in my stomach because it\u2019s a place where my mom grew up, was born and raised, worked in office buildings in downtown Toronto and things like that,\u201d Freeman said during an appearance on the \u201c6-1-1 Podcast.\u201d<\/a> \u201cSo you just feel a little bit closer to her, and I always seem to play pretty well when I go up there. It\u2019s not about playing well, it\u2019s about, \u2018Man, this is cool. I\u2019m in a place where my mom was 50, 60 years ago.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just those little moments and it takes your mind off what you\u2019re trying to do and what you face. It\u2019s, \u2018This is cool. I\u2019m in a place where my mom grew up.\u2019 To be honest, when we won it there, I didn\u2019t think, \u2018Oh, I just won in my mom and dad\u2019s home country.\u2019 It was, we won.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Freddie Freeman will not be playing in the World Baseball Classic this March. Freeman, 36, has withdrawn from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":400201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[103,8965,2323,363,99,72364],"class_list":{"0":"post-400200","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-freddie-freeman","10":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-world-baseball-classic"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}