Freddie Freeman likely headed for DL

With a record of 35-35, the Braves 2015 season has been much more successful than it appeared it was going to be before the year began. However they were dealt some unfortunate news recently concerning their all-star first baseman, Freddie Freeman. He hasn't played a game since June 16th after taking an awkward swing, and it now appears as if he'll need a DL stint. You can hear Freeman talk about the injury in detail, as well as see the swing that caused the injury in the video below.

"I did it on a funky swing on Saturday in New York right before I got that base hit to tie the game. It was a 3-2 changeup left on left and it started outside and coming back to the outside part of the plate i was just trying to foul it off and if anybody's seen that video it's a really funky weird swing and it kinda just shot into pain immediately".

It was an incredibly awkward swing, and it's easy to see how that could cause Freeman some intense pain. He was given a cortisone shot, but was still feeling discomfort in his wrist when he attempted to swing a bat. While a move has yet to be made official, all signs point to him needing a stay on the DL.

Mark Bowman reported that Freeman didn't travel with the team to Washington on Monday, which seemingly points to an announcement coming soon. He's been tremendously valuable for the Braves in 2015, and is clearly their best hitter. In 283 plate appearances this season, Freeman boasts a slash line of .299/.367/.520, with an ISO of .220 and a wRC+ of 144. He's also leading the team in fWAR, and underscores the fact that Atlanta will sorely miss his production for however long he's out of the lineup.

Bowman also reported that if Freeman does wind up on the DL, Joey Terdoslavich would fill his roster spot for the immediate future. He's nothing more than organizational depth at this point in his career, as he's accrued just 107 plate appearances in parts of three big league stints.

It will be interesting to see how the Braves perform in Freeman's absence, as a prolonged losing streak could cause the front office to become sellers before the deadline, rather than try and stay in the NL East hunt. It's unclear how bad Freeman's injury is, but in the aforementioned video, he pointed to the tendon that runs along the inside of his wrist, and as we've seen before with players like Mark Teixeira and Mark DeRosa, injuries in that area can be incredibly difficult to recover from.

Update: The Braves have officially announced the move, and placed Freeman on the DL

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Braves?src=hash">#Braves</a> made the Freeman DL move official.</p>&mdash; Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) <a href="https://twitter.com/mlbbowman/status/613404329307996160">June 23, 2015</a></blockquote>

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He'll be eligible to return on July 3rd.