Freddie Freeman, Shohei Ohtani look ahead as DodgerFest marks new chapter

Thousands of fans during the annual DodgerFest fan event in the parking lots outside of Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)

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LOS ANGELES — Championships – especially those remembered in ink – leave an indelible mark.

In the aftermath of the Dodgers’ World Series title, Freddie Freeman has come to realize exactly what the team’s playoff run meant to those outside of the clubhouse and front office.

Reunited with the Dodgers fans en masse for the first time since October’s championship parade, Freeman shared snippets from the offseason, while taking a break from DodgerFest.

Freeman will always have memories of that parade when Dodgers fans showed their appreciation by flooding downtown Los Angeles streets. Some fans, though, will have moments of the 2024 playoff run that will stay with them for a lifetime.

“I think in Orange County I ran into somebody that had a fresh tattoo of me holding up my bat,” Freeman said, referencing his pose as his game-winning grand slam in Game 1 of the World Series sailed toward the right-field pavilion.

“I just signed a guy’s leg that had a tattoo of me on his leg,” Freeman added. “I think it’s so cool that it means so much to those people to go out and put that memory on them forever.”

There was a price to pay for it. Freeman and Shohei Ohtani paid a physical toll with late-season injuries. Both now are in various stages of recovery.

Freeman eventually had a clean-up surgery for his late-season ankle injury that he played on in the World Series. He still hit home runs in the first four games against the New York Yankees.

While his ankle tendons and ligaments were able to heal on their own, Freeman had loose cartilage removed after it floated into the area of his Achilles tendon, while also shaving down bone spurs.

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Freeman only started swinging a bat Thursday and won’t begin running drills until the team arrives at Glendale, Ariz., for spring training in a little more than a week.

He doesn’t expect to play in the field when Cactus League games begin but is confident he will be ready in full capacity for the season opener in Japan on March 18 against the Chicago Cubs.

Ohtani’s recovery for shoulder labrum surgery, following his injury in Game 2 of the World Series, will be more involved.

“As of now, it seems like I am on schedule,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton. “I have been able to work out every day and I’m really looking forward to being on time for spring training and the season.”

While former Dodger Cody Bellinger struggled to find his MVP form after shoulder labrum surgery, Ohtani might be in position to avoid a similar production decline. Bellinger’s surgery was on his right shoulder, while Ohtani had his on the left side.

“The harder thing for hitters when they have a shoulder surgery is that front shoulder, that lead shoulder,” manager Dave Roberts said. “For Shohei, batting left-handed, it being his back shoulder is less of a concern.”

In other promising Ohtani developments, the two-way star might even make his Dodgers debut on the mound before the previous May estimate.

“It might be earlier,” Roberts said. “I think the first thing I said earlier this offseason was that it wasn’t going to be in the Japan series. He’s not going to be pitching there, but once he gets to spring training and we see where the program is, we’ll just go from there.”

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Saturday’s fan gathering gave an opportunity for the team’s new additions to share the same space as the team’s returning title winners. Blake Snell, Hyeseong Kim, Michael Conforto and Tanner Scott all put on their Dodgers jerseys before meeting fans.

“It’s cool meeting (new teammates) for the first time because I’ve gone against some of them for so long,” Snell said. “So to finally meet them in person to say, ‘What’s up?’ and we now have the same goals on the same team, it’s gonna be special.”

And new contracts still could be coming. Both Clayton Kershaw, who is recovering from knee and toe surgeries, and free agent Kiké Hernandez, will likely be discussing deals soon.

“We have been in touch with Clayton and a lot of it is seeing how he’s feeling before we pick up those conversations,” general manager Brandon Gomes said.

With Mookie Betts trying to return to shortstop this season, and hunger from new additions to win their own rings, words like “energy” and “buzz” were referenced as fans partied in the parking lots. Inside Dodger Stadium, earth-moving improvements were ongoing to the team’s clubhouse on the third-base side.

The goal of becoming the first repeat champion in a quarter century, since the Yankees won titles from 1998-2000, will be played out in the team’s new digs.

“… It’s beautiful to be a Dodger,” Betts said, in words worthy of remembering for a lifetime.

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