Some numbers never show up in a box score but say more than any stat line. Here’s one: since 2011, Freddie Freeman and Austin Riley have covered 95% of Atlanta’s games at first base. Fourteen years. Two names. One corner of the infield.
The Anchor Who Left for L.A.
Freeman was the first to stake his claim at the position. From 2011 through 2021, he was the face of first base in Atlanta — one of the most consistent bats in the National League and, eventually, one of the best players of his generation. His final season with the Braves was a masterpiece: a .896 OPS and 31 home runs, numbers that earned him the 2021 NL MVP. That same fall he won the World Series with Atlanta, and weeks later he signed as a free agent with the Los Angeles Dodgers, closing a chapter that had lasted more than a decade.
Riley Stepped In Without Missing a Beat
Austin Riley came up as a third baseman, but as Freeman’s departure reshaped the infield, he absorbed the new responsibility as naturally as if the transition had been planned for years. In 2022 and 2023, Riley posted an OPS above .850 in both seasons, cementing himself as one of the most dangerous bats in Atlanta’s lineup and one of the best players at his position in the league.
What 95% Actually Means
In a sport where franchises patch positions year after year, that percentage is almost an anomaly. It means Atlanta essentially never had to improvise at first base for nearly three decades’ worth of seasons — no emergency solutions, no last-minute transactions to fill a hole that never really existed.
- Freddie Freeman: Atlanta’s starting first baseman from 2011 to 2021, 2021 NL MVP with a .896 OPS.
- Austin Riley: Inherited the role starting in 2022, posting an OPS above .850 in his first two seasons as a lineup cornerstone.
- 95% of first-base games covered between the two since 2011.
And there’s a detail that gives the whole story a little extra flavor: in a recent game where the Braves beat the Dodgers 5-0 with Blake Snell on the mound, Freeman and Riley were on the same diamond — just on opposite sides. The one who left and the one who stayed. The same position in their DNA, different chapters, identical roots.
Not many franchises can say they had that spot locked down for fourteen years with only two names. Atlanta can.
