Braves Sign Jewish Freiman
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Braves Sign Jewish Freiman

David R. Cohen
By David R. Cohen December 23, 2015, 3:49 pm Edit

David R. Cohen is the former Associate Editor of the Atlanta Jewish Times. He is originally from Marietta, GA and studied Journalism at the University of Tennessee.

Above: Newly signed Atlanta Braves first baseman Nate Freiman had a solid season for the Oakland A’s as a rookie in 2013. (photo by Keith Allison) 

The Atlanta Braves have added another first baseman to the roster with a name strikingly similar to two-time All-Star Freddie Freeman.

The only difference? This one is actually Jewish.

Jewish first baseman Nate Freiman, 28, who played for the Israeli national baseball team in 2012, was released by the Oakland Athletics on Dec. 17 and signed with the Braves on Wednesday to a minor-league deal, according to a tweet from Baseball America’s Matt Eddy.

After a promising start to his career in which he hit .274/.327/.389 in 80 games for the 2013 A’s, the 6-foot-8 Freiman was only able to appear in 36 games last season because of injury. Last season with the Triple-A Nashville Sounds, Freiman hit .220/.279/.321.

In his career Freiman has appeared in 116 games at the major-league level and 644 games in the minors from 2009 to 2015.

Born in Washington, D.C., Freiman holds Duke University’s career home run record and has the school’s second-highest all-time batting average. In September 2012 during the World Baseball Classic qualifier, Freiman batted .417 with four home runs for the Israeli national team.

Freiman will most likely start the season at Triple-A Gwinnett. He is a right-handed hitter, so if he can crack the big-league roster, he has the potential to give the left-handed-hitting Freeman some rest when the Braves face top left-handed pitchers and can provide a solid bat off the bench.

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