Freddie Freeman knows the finish line is coming and wants to savor the last chapter

PHILADELPHIA — The moment that will stay with me from the MLB All-Star Game didn't happen on the field.

It happened outside the National League clubhouse after he was done for the night. 

Freddie Freeman stood surrounded by nearly everyone who matters most to him. His father, Fred. His wife, Chelsea. Their three sons. Their daughter. His aunt Carol — yes, the same Carol who became a fan favorite on The Golden Bachelor last year.

Carol spotted me, smiled and asked if I could take a family photo.

So there I was, standing a few feet away from one of baseball's greatest players, holding someone else's camera while the Freeman family squeezed together and smiled.

It struck me in that moment that this wasn't really about another All-Star Game.

It was about preserving another memory.

Over the last few days in Philadelphia, Freeman kept saying the same thing in different ways. At 37 years old and in his 17th major league season, he has started looking at baseball differently.

Not through batting averages or championships.

Through moments.

"The kids are getting older," Freeman said after Tuesday night's All-Star Game. "The boys are starting to understand what's going on. Charlie got to collect autographs during the Home Run Derby. That's what it's all about for me now. As I get older, you take a step back, realize how special this is and create memories with the kids."

One of the things that has always separated Freeman from so many modern superstars is how rarely he talks about himself. He'll discuss the Dodgers, his teammates, his family and the game itself long before he'll mention his own accomplishments. Milestones usually have to be dragged out of him.

This time felt different.

Maybe it's because this was his 10th All-Star Game. Maybe it's because after 17 seasons, three World Series championships and a career that has already earned him a place in Cooperstown, Freeman understands something every great athlete eventually realizes.

There are only so many of these left.

For the first time, he sounded like someone who could actually see the end of the road.

When I asked him about that timeline during Media Day, Freeman didn't dodge the question.

"I've always wanted to try and play until I'm 40 years old," Freeman told me. "So that would be three more years after this. I don't know. I'm not going to put a firm number on it.

"But I would have to get another contract. So I'm only worried about this year. Twenty years in the big leagues would be kind of cool and special. Obviously, that would be nice to achieve, but we'll see what life has in store in the next few years."

If everything goes according to plan, it's easy to picture what that looks like. Freeman finishes out his current contract, signs one final extension with the Dodgers and walks away after 20 seasons sometime shortly after his 40th birthday. Along the way, he chases 3,000 hits, another World Series championship and further cements a Hall of Fame résumé that already stands among the finest of his generation.

I asked him whether watching athletes like LeBron James, Tom Brady and Justin Verlander extend their careers had changed the way he thought about his own longevity.

Freeman laughed.

"I'm not playing that long," he said. "I just saw Verlander in our clubhouse, too. I'm not playing until 43 either, so hopefully a few more years."

During Media Day, Charlie proudly wore a custom T-shirt that read, "My dad has 2,500 hits."

"We're on our way to 3,000," Freeman said with a smile. "That would be awesome to get there."

But Charlie wasn't thinking about 3,000 hits.

He was thinking about his dad.

Freeman was thinking the same way.

After the All-Star Game, he spoke about appreciating these moments because they don't last forever. He talked about reminding the younger All-Stars to slow down because careers fly by before players even realize it.

"It feels like yesterday when I first started doing this," Freeman said. "My first All-Star Game was 14 years ago. It's flown by. … Make sure you take a step back and realize how special it is."

That perspective doesn't come from someone trying to hold onto baseball.

It comes from someone learning to savor it.

The Dodgers are trying to accomplish something baseball hasn't seen since the Yankees won three straight World Series titles a quarter century ago. Freeman is once again in the middle of another outstanding season, and every time the Dodgers take the field, he still gets to look around and appreciate something few players ever experience.

"Any given day you run on the field and it's an All-Star at every position," Freeman said. "Credit to our front office and ownership group to go out there and put a great team on the field. It's fun coming to the yard every day with a chance to win."

Freeman will always be remembered as a Braves legend. That's where he became an MVP, won his first World Series championship and established himself as one of baseball's premier hitters.

But it didn't take long for Freeman to carve out a place in Dodgers history that few players — regardless of how long they wore the uniform — will ever match.

His legacy in Los Angeles was cemented over two unforgettable Octobers.

It began in the 2024 World Series when Freeman authored one of the greatest postseason performances baseball has ever seen. His walk-off grand slam off Yankees reliever Nestor Cortés in Game 1 was the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history, instantly joining Kirk Gibson's iconic home run in 1988 among the defining moments in Dodgers history.

He followed by homering in Games 2, 3 and 4, becoming the first player ever to homer in the first four games of a World Series. He extended his World Series home run streak to six consecutive games, batted .300, scored six runs and drove in 12, tying Bobby Richardson's World Series record while setting a Dodgers franchise record. When Los Angeles defeated New York in five games, Freeman was the unanimous World Series MVP.

Then he somehow added another chapter.

In Game 3 of the 2025 World Series against the Toronto Blue Jays, Freeman launched a walk-off home run in the 18th inning, becoming the first player in baseball history to hit multiple walk-off home runs in the World Series. The Dodgers went on to repeat as champions, giving Freeman his third World Series title and forever placing him alongside the greatest October heroes in franchise history.

Those moments are why it's so easy to envision Freeman finishing exactly where he is now.

He's already become part of Dodgers history. I came to Philadelphia to write about Freeman before he returned to Yankee Stadium for the first time since the 2024 World Series but the image that stuck with me most after the game was not about anything he did on the field. 

It will be standing outside the National League clubhouse, camera in hand, while Freeman gathered with his father, his wife, his children and his aunt for a family picture.

For a few minutes, the All-Star Game disappeared. There wasn't a future Hall of Famer. There wasn't a World Series MVP. There wasn't one of the greatest first basemen of his generation. There was simply a husband, a son, a father and a nephew making sure another family memory was captured.

Freeman knows the finish line is finally coming into view.

The remarkable part isn't that he's thinking about the end.

It's that he's finally allowing himself to appreciate everything that came before it and making sure the people who shared the journey are in every picture along the way.