Alex Freeland

February 17, 2026

Door opens to 2B opportunity

Freeland, Hyeseong Kim and Miguel Rojas were mentioned by Dodgers manager Dave Roberts as options to begin the regular season as the starter at second base with Tommy Edman (ankle) expected to be placed on the injured list, Sonja Chen of MLB.com reports.

Analysis

Freeland struggled during his first experience in the majors last season, posting a .602 OPS with a 36.1 percent strikeout rate over 97 plate appearances. However, he recorded an .835 OPS with 16 homers, 18 stolen bases and 82 RBI across 106 games at Triple-A, so he doesn't have much left to prove at that level. Freeland, Kim and Rojas appear to be in a truly open competition to be the Opening Day starter at the keystone, and Freeland probably has the most to gain since he may begin the campaign in the minors if he doesn't win the positional battle.