Freddie Freeman voted Roy Campanella Award winner by Dodgers teammates & coaches

Freddie Freeman’s first year in Los Angeles has made such an impact that his Dodgers teammates and coaches voted him the 2022 Roy Campanella Award winner. Freeman is just the third Dodger in the 17-year history of the award to win it his first year with the team.

The award began in 2006, with the criteria to honor the Dodger “who best exemplifies the spirit and leadership” of Campanella, the Hall of Fame catcher who won three MVPs for Brooklyn and played in five World Series in his ten seasons with the Dodgers.

Freeman entering Friday is hitting .327/.407/.513, a 157 wRC+, leading the majors in hits (193), doubles, and batting average, and leads the National League in on-base percentage. Freeman also leads the majors with a .388 batting average with runners in scoring position, hitting .388/.497/.578 with a 190 wRC+ in those situations.

He also started the first 141 games of the season at first base, getting his first game off on September 14, the day after the Dodgers clinched the National League West.

In the first year of his six-year, $162 million contract with Los Angeles, Freeman joins Rafael Furcal (2006) and Jamey Carroll (2010) as the only first-year Dodgers to win the Campanella Award.

Current Dodgers to have also won the award are Clayton Kershaw (2013-2014), Justin Turner (2017, 2019, 2020), and Chris Taylor (2021).

Freeman will receive the Campanella Award before Tuesday night’s game against the Rockies, the penultimate game of the regular season for the Dodgers. Campanella’s daughter Joni Campanella Roan and his grandson JT Campanella will be on hand to present Freeman with the award.