LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman was out of the lineup Monday night against the Atlanta Braves after slipping in the shower and hurting his surgically repaired right ankle.
“He had a little mishap entering the shower,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Kind of swelled up a little bit."
The 2024 World Series MVP got hurt at home last weekend and came to the ballpark on the off day Sunday for treatment.
Before the accident, Roberts said Freeman's ankle “wasn't 100% but still, obviously the way he swung the bat, in a good spot.”
Freeman is 3 for 12 with two home runs and four RBIs to start the season. He was scratched from the Dodgers' season-opening game in Tokyo because of left rib discomfort.
“He feels he could go out there and play, but just let him kind of recoup today and we’ll see how he is tomorrow,” Roberts said. “For the most part, he's always kicking and screaming (to play).”
Freeman sprained his right ankle on a play at first base in late September and struggled in the first two rounds of the postseason, but it was hardly evident during the World Series. He homered in the first four games and had 12 RBIs as the Dodgers beat the New York Yankees in five games.
Freeman had debridement surgery in December to remove loose bodies in the ankle.
The Dodgers took a 5-0 record into their series opener against Freeman’s old team, the Braves.
Freeman is hitting .299 with a .939 OPS in 20 games against the team he spent the first 12 years of his career with. He has four homers, 12 RBIs, four doubles, a triple and 13 walks in those games.
Informed that Freeman wasn't playing, Braves manager Brian Snitker said, “Good.” He was Freeman's manager in Atlanta and they remain friends.
“I haven’t talked to him, but if he’s got something going on I hope he takes three days off,” a smiling Snitker said. “I want him to make sure he’s good for the long season.”
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Los Angeles Dodgers' Freddie Freeman, center, is congratulated by Miguel Rojas, right, as Mookie Betts stands by after hitting a two-run home run during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Detroit Tigers Friday, March 28, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Los Angeles Dodgers' Freddie Freeman rounds second after hitting a solo home run during the first inning of a baseball game against the Detroit Tigers Saturday, March 29, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani scores on a double by Freddie Freeman as Detroit Tigers catcher Jake Rogers stands by during the seventh inning of a baseball game Saturday, March 29, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
The National Weather Service is no longer providing language translations of its products, a change that experts say could put non-English speakers at risk of missing potentially life-saving warnings about extreme weather.
The weather service has “paused” the translations because its contract with the provider has lapsed, NWS spokesperson Michael Musher said. He declined further comment.
Lilt, an artificial intelligence company, began providing translations in late 2023, replacing manual translations that the weather service had said were labor-intensive and not sustainable. It eventually provided them in Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, French and Samoan. The contract lapse comes as President Donald Trump's administration is seeking to slash spending in federal agencies, including cuts within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that have led to high employee vacancy rates at NWS offices.
NOAA referred questions about the contract to a message on its website announcing the contract had lapsed. Lilt did not respond to requests for comment.
Nearly 68 million people in the U.S. speak a language other than English at home, including 42 million Spanish speakers, according to 2019 Census data.
Not being able to read urgent weather alerts could be a matter of life or death, said Joseph Trujillo-Falcón, a researcher at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who has worked with NOAA researching how to translate weather and climate information to the public, including the use of artificial intelligence.
He said translated weather alerts saved lives during a deadly tornado outbreak in Kentucky in 2021. A Spanish-speaking family interviewed afterward said they got a tornado alert on their cellphone in English but ignored it because they didn't understand it, he said. When the same alert came in Spanish, they quickly sought shelter, he said.
“It saved their life,” said Trujillo-Falcón.
Trujillo-Falcón said weather alerts used to be translated by forecasters that spoke more than one language, a task that could be “completely overwhelming” on top of their forecasting duties.
The translations are important for more than extreme weather events, said Andrew Kruczkiewicz, a senior researcher at the Columbia Climate School at Columbia University. General weather forecasts are essential for a number of sectors including tourism, transportation and energy. Families and businesses can make more informed decisions when they can get weather information that often includes actions that should be taken based on the forecast.
Norma Mendoza-Denton, a professor of anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles, said there are many people in the U.S. that function with limited English relevant to their daily routines. For example, a shopkeeper might be able to have short conversations with customers, but might not have the same understanding when it comes to reading weather or climate terminologies.
“If they don’t have access to that National Weather Service information in the different languages, that could be the difference between life and death for somebody,” said Mendoza-Denton.
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In an aerial view, the flooded Buffalo Trace Distillery is seen on Monday, April 7, 2025, in Frankfort, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)
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