For those who haven’t heard, the Atlanta Braves made a blockbuster trade on Monday in acquiring star first baseman Matt Olson from the Oakland As for a package of four hot prospects. The team later doubled down on the move by extending Olson on an 8-year, $168 million deal. I’m not going to focus on the Olson signing yet, as I plan on saving that story for a later article. Today, I want to focus on what this means for Freddie Freeman and Braves fans who love him. I’ll do this by going through the Kübler-Ross Five Stages of Grief model upon hearing the news. My collegiate background is in the field of Psychology, so this should be a fun exercise for me. Discussing the Kübler-Ross model is a serious topic, but I’ll put a humorous spin on things too.
Denial
Let’s make this clear, I’m a huge Braves fan & Freddie Freeman was my favorite player. I’ve got a poster of him on my wall, a Freddie bobblehead on my shelf, & his jersey in my closet. Needless to say, losing him to another team (still unsigned currently) will take time to process. My experience with the denial phase upon hearing the news was as follows, “OK, so we’ve got Matt Olson. He’s a good player, but maybe we could re-sign Freddie as our designated hitter?” This was an unrealistic expectation of course, but it was the only thought that crossed my mind. This wasn’t exactly how I was expecting to hear the news either, which made denial hard for me. I expected to see a CBS notification on my phone saying either “Braves re-sign Freeman” or “Freeman signs with team X.” The Matt Olson trade complicated things & stirred my emotions.
Anger
How could the Braves do this to Freddie after he just helped them win the World Series? I’ve been in and out of this stage in the grief process, as it’s still too early to tell how well that Matt Olson & Freddie Freeman will play this coming season & in future seasons down the road. My dad & I previously joked about bringing out our pitchforks & lanterns to form an angry mob at Truist Park if the Braves didn’t re-sign Freddie, but I’m just not sure my heart can take it yet. Still though, seeing him in another uniform (especially if it’s the Dodgers) is surely going to hurt. I’m not mad at Freddie, but instead mad at the Braves for choosing to go in a different direction.
Bargaining
Bargaining for me involved foolishly believing we could still re-sign Freddie as DH and hoping (and praying) that the Dodgers don’t back up the Brink’s truck in an effort to sign him. The truth is, Freddie’s free to sign wherever he pleases & it might be with a team nobody likes. This stage of the grief process didn’t take me long to get over, as this always seemed unrealistic. Those who are still in this stage may need to stay off social media until Freddie signs elsewhere.
Depression
I think a lot of us are currently in this stage as we anxiously await the return of baseball. Atlanta Braves General Manager Alex Anthopoulos went through this stage of grief (beginning at the 8:30 mark) publicly as he met with the media on Monday to discuss the Matt Olson trade. You can see him start to choke up & tear up as he indirectly answers questions about Freddie. Personally, this is the stage I’m most associated with right now as the wound is still too fresh. People in this stage should avoid wearing Freeman gear and watching World Series highlights.
Acceptance
Acceptance is of course the most difficult stage to achieve in the grieving process model. You’ve got to go through the other four stages to get here, and then open your mind about things. Anthopoulos somehow reached this stage already in a Tuesday media interview with Matt Olson. You can see he’s excited to move on in life, which is in stark contrast to his previous interview. Everyone grieves in their own way and in their own time, so don’t worry if you’re not here yet. It’s going to be a long road for me, and I probably won’t reach acceptance until the season starts.
The Sports Beacon 