2011 World Series: David Freese's Career Won't Gain Much from Series MVP Win

By the time the Cardinals salted away last night’s 6-2 victory for their 11th world championship, it came as no surprise that hometown hero David Freese was named series MVP. Freese’s walkoff homer to end the epic Game 6 will go down in World Series lore, and the young third baseman followed up with a game-tying double in the bottom of the first in Game 7.

However, Freese’s youth and his position also mean that his shiny new award isn’t likely to have much of an effect on his future in the major leagues.

In the grand tradition of underdog series MVPs, most—Bobby Richardson, Edgar Renteria, David Eckstein—have been from the traditionally light-hitting ranks of the middle infield. A third baseman like Freese is going to need to improve substantially on his .429 career slugging percentage if he wants to stick in the majors long-term.

In addition, Freese is too young to be lumped in with the “proven winners” whom some managers (notably Dusty Baker) like to stockpile at the trade deadline. Had Freese been a ten-year vet, his Series MVP trophy might’ve added five seasons to his career, but not at age 28 with just 184 career games in regular-season play.

Then, too, Freese is in the wrong sport to make serious money off his outstanding Series performance. Whereas football has seen several Super Bowl MVPs (Larry Brown, Dexter Jackson) signed to outrageous free agent contracts on the basis of one good postseason, baseball’s World Series MVPs haven’t enjoyed the same largesse.

None of this is to take away from the brilliance of Freese’s performance over the last two series (which also netted him NLCS MVP honors). As outstanding as he’s been, though, it will be his continued hitting rather than his hardware that determines the future course of Freese’s career.