The Royals announced this afternoon they’ve signed lefty reliever Sam Freeman to a minor league contract. The club didn’t specify whether the deal included an invitation to big league Spring Training.
Freeman has appeared in parts of nine MLB seasons. The Texas native broke in with the Cardinals in 2012 and spent the next few seasons as a situational option in St. Louis. While Freeman didn’t post particularly impressive strikeout and walk numbers, he was generally successful at inducing ground balls and keeping runs off the board. Between 2013-15, he posted a 2.74 ERA over 88 2/3 frames between the Cardinals and Rangers, racking up grounders on more than half the balls in play against him during that stretch.
The southpaw didn’t fare well in a brief look with the Brewers in 2016, but he posted a 3.34 ERA with a 55.8% grounder rate in 110 1/3 innings for the Braves between 2017-18. Freeman missed a few more bats than he had earlier in his career during that time, but he walked an alarming 12.6% of batters faced. Released by Atalanta shortly before the start of the 2019 season, he logged minimal MLB action with the Angels and Nationals over the next two years.
Freeman underwent Tommy John surgery late in the 2020 campaign, the second time in his career he’d required that procedure. That cost him all of last season, but he’ll try to work his way back to the majors in Kansas City. The 34-year-old averaged a solid 94.1 MPH on his fastball during his most recent action. He owns a 3.58 ERA over 233 2/3 career big league frames, overcoming a lofty 13.3% walk rate thanks to his success keeping the ball on the ground and avoiding the long ball.
Kansas City has stockpiled veteran bullpen depth via a few non-roster pacts in recent weeks. The Royals also added Arodys Vizcaíno and Colten Brewer on respective minors contracts earlier this month. They’re obviously barred from acquiring major league free agents during the course of the lockout, but they’re likely to target additional bullpen arms with more certainty whenever the transactions freeze comes to a close.
Breaking news: Royals Sign Freeman.
I’m impressed you can read.
I’m sure you are. I’m impressed you learned how to like your own comment
it’s a comment on how so many people misread names and think the wrong player has gotten signed/traded/released. Sam Freeman – Freddie Freeman.
Oh of course, everyone is wondering who Freddie is going to sign with, now I get it. Well done. Yes, I’m one of those people you often have to explain jokes to!
Buzz off DarkSide is a good poster
Exactly. He has constantly been one of the best posters
im also impressed i can read
Sam Freeman and Arodys Vizcaino? New trivia question: How many Tommy John surgery Braves retread relief pitchers can the Kansas City Royals sign in one offseason?
THAT would have been the headline if the Yanks signed Sam.
I remember when Sam Freeman came up… wow I’m getting old. He did best under Matheny
Nice young man, I met him while he was working his way back. Best of luck Sam
I remember this guy as getting his first strikeout of his MLB career and I’m pretty sure his MLB debut against Daniel Murphy during the Johan Santana no hitter. The only reason I know this is because they always rerun that game on SNY
They should have signed Django Freeman
Nah he’s too unchained.
love a good q.t. reference haha
This is a bit of a homecoming for Freeman. He transferred into the University of Kansas and pitched in Lawrence for a year before getting drafted.
Not bad for a 32nd round draft choice! Good luck Sam!
From franchise cornerstone a year ago to playing in the minors for Kansas.
Who was franchise cornerstone a year ago? You’re not talking about Freeman, are you? That guy hasn’t been highly regarded in years if ever at all. He’s basically a low end journeyman.
Your stupidity hurts my head a lot.
Did you find it a witty joke because you were trying to pretend Freddie Freeman and Sam Freeman are the same person? You’re lack of originality makes my weiner soft. You have to be more creative than that. No one is so stupid they couldn’t figure that out. I just thought you were saying something else because I expected better from you. What’s next? Pretending Ronald Acuna’s brother is Ronald because they have the same last name? You are so creative. Let me tell ya. At first I thought better of you than to make a lame joke like that. Now I know you are just lame. I know. Let’s pretend Morgan Freeman and Freddie Freeman are the same person. Then you will look very “Highest IQ.”
You’re autistic, get mad at stupid jokes and like your own comments.
Who’s mad? You’re the one trying to call other people stupid like your joke flew over my head or something. If I saw what your face looked like when you said it I probably would have realized you thought you were making a witty joke and just left it at that. Instead I thought you might actually be smart enough to realize that joke was lame and maybe you were saying something that was actually intelligent or funny. Then your response was to call ME stupid for actually thinking more highly of you than I should have.
Everyone can play that dumb game of pretending someone is someone else with a first name or a last name. It’s so easy it’s not even funny. That’s why I assumed you weren’t doing that. Then you called me stupid like your joke was some witty, smart comment that went way over my head. And then your name is “Highest IQ” on top of telling the lamest played out jokes on the planet and acting like your joke was too smart for someone else to understand. It was so stupid and lame I thought you were actually saying something smart I might not understand. Which is why I cordially asked you about it instead of calling you stupid like you did to me.
The Angels brought in Wesley Wright July 2015. Since Ian Krol, Freeman, Ryan Butcher and Alex Claudio all have files suit as left handers who pitched 50+ games the season before to become an Angel and disappear. The Angels were the first 3 batter minimum