» Freeman wants All-star Game to stay in Atlanta,

Braves first baseman believes event can be used as a ‘platform.’

Whether to move this season’s MLB All-star Game out of Atlanta is “a conversation to be had,” Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman said Thursday. But he said he personally prefers keeping it at Truist Park and using the high-profile event in a positive way.

“I think it’d be better to keep it and use a platform,” Freeman said.

The executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, Tony Clark, said last week the union wants to discuss moving the All-star game out of Georgia because of the state’s new voting law. President Joe Biden said Wednesday he would

“strongly support” such a move.

“It’s a conversation to be had,” Freeman said several hours before the Braves’ season opener in Philadelphia, “but I think sometimes when you’re in a situation you can put a different kind of platform – keeping it in Atlanta and doing some way around that. There’s so many different angles we could take this.

“If we do keep it in Atlanta, you can do something around that in that situation. Or if we do move it, that’s up to Tony Clark and the (union’s) executive subcommittee and stuff like that. But we’ll see what happens in the next couple of months.”

Freeman said he has not discussed the issue with Clark.

In response to a follow-up question, Freeman reiterated he believes having the game played here and using it as a platform would be better than having it pulled out of Atlanta.

“I believe so,” he said. “Why not? It’s here. What’s happened in the last couple of months has already gone through, so why not use what we already have here as a platform in the city and state that it has been passed through?”

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has begun discussions with Clark and others around baseball about the possibility of moving the game, which is scheduled for July 13 at Truist Park.