Freddie Freeman’s active Iron Man streak about to end

Cal Ripken Jr. need not worry about Freddie Freeman anymore. The Atlanta Braves first baseman, baseball’s active consecutive games played leader, will have his Iron Man streak end on Thursday.

At 234 consecutive games Freeman had about 15 years to go before getting in the discussion with Ripken’s mark of 2,632 consecutive games. But in an era when few players still play every day, Freeman’s run is worth acknowledging.

And he’s not going out willingly either. He left Wednesday’s game against the Red Sox due to a wrist injury. He hoped to be able to play through it but instead will be forced to take Thursday off, according to Fox Sports.

“I’m kind of stubborn in that area,” [Freeman] said. “It takes a lot for me to come out of a game and not play in a game. I got an injection after I came out of the game, so I will probably be missing [Thursday] and hopefully be back Friday.”

So by the sounds of it, Freeman is intent on starting a new streak first thing Friday in the opener of a three-game series against the Mets. He received a cortisone injection and hopes to only miss Thursday’s game.

Freeman’s current iron man streak began on September 24, 2013, and he has averaged 153 games played a year since becoming a full time big leaguer in 2011. He was one of just four players to play in all 162 games in 2014. Since 2010 only 10 different players have played in all 162 games in a season. Prince Fielder did it three times, while Ichiro Suzuki and Hunter Pence did it twice. All their Iron Man streaks have long since ended.

By our calculations that makes baseball’s new active consecutive games played leader Josh Donaldson of the Blue Jays. He has played in all 67 games so far this year, and the last 33 games of 2014, for an even 100. We’re sure Ripken isn’t losing much sleep over it.

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Ian Denomme is an editor and writer for Yahoo Sports. Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter.