Freddie Freeman was out of the Dodgers lineup Friday against the Angels, with Dalton Rushing starting at first base in his place. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said the absence was nothing more than a day off for Freeman, who was in the middle of a 13-game run.
"Yeah," Roberts said when asked if it was a day off. He added that, with Freeman in the middle of 13 in a row, he felt Friday was a good day to "kind of sit and watch a ball game."
The move stood out because Freeman rarely takes a day off, especially this early in the season. Earlier this year, Freeman said he expected to miss three games in 2026, with two of those planned absences tied to the birth of his daughter and a third scheduled for the day after the Dodgers clinched the National League West. He had already missed two games on the paternity list before Friday, and the Dodgers were not clinching the division in May.
That made Friday's lineup card notable even before the game began, and it came on a day when the Dodgers were also dealing with a bigger concern. Blake Snell was scratched from his scheduled start and was set to go on the injured list with loose bodies in his left elbow, an issue that will interrupt what had been expected to be his second start of the 2026 season.
For Freeman, the off day was presented as routine. For the Dodgers, it landed alongside another roster hit. Together, the two moves underscored how quickly a clubhouse can shift from managing workload to managing injuries, even in May, when the season is still young but the calendar already starts to press on a team with expectations.
