PHILADELPHIA — For decades, Major League Baseball watched from afar as its peers in other sports took hold of the world's biggest athletic stage for two weeks, every four years.
MLB players and the league, as a whole, could only experience the Summer Olympics as fans, cheering for their countries from clubhouses, living rooms and team hotels -- never as participants. Yet, with the rise of the World Baseball Classic as an international event and players increasingly pushing to grow the game beyond its traditional boundaries, perhaps the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles will finally be the moment baseball's biggest star leave their imprint on the Games.
Bryce Harper, who was outspoken this year regarding the need for baseball at the 2028 Summer Olympics, doubled down on his remarks during the recent All-Star festivities in Philly.
"I think it'll happen," the Phillies star said. "I don't think it won't happen. To tell you the truth, I think that's a big thing for baseball. If you want to grow our game internationally, which they do, it being in L.A., I think it helps a lot. I think there's a good chance of it happening in '28."
Mike Trout echoed Harper's sentiments.
"I think there's going to have to be a format for it," Trout said. "I think it'd be good for the whole sports world."
The format and logistics, however, remain significant hurdles that MLB and the Players Association have yet to clear, with the Olympics roughly two years away.
LA28, the organizing committee for the Los Angeles Olympics, has set the Games for July 14-30. The baseball competition, however, is scheduled to take place from July 13-19. That week is squarely in the middle of the MLB season, but it's just after the usual All-Star break (which would be July 10-12) and just ahead of the trade deadline. The early start date represents an effort by the committee to accommodate MLB participation, with competition beginning before the opening ceremonies.
Still, the logistics remain complicated. The All-Star break presents another wrinkle, as MLB would likely have to extend its midseason pause past the Olympic window.
"Our players want to participate," Bruce Meyer, the interim executive director of the MLBPA, said last week. "Having said that, we want to make sure they have things like travel and accommodations and things that they deserve based on who they are. We are at a very early stage in discussions over the Olympics. We want to make that clear, a very early stage -- earlier than they were in the last round of discussions in the NHL."
The NHL's blueprint was one that players repeatedly pointed to as a model baseball could potentially follow. From 1998 to 2014, the league paused its season to allow NHL players to participate in five consecutive Winter Olympics, carving out a roughly two-week break in the schedule. Teams also compressed portions of their schedules before and after the Games to make participation possible.
Baseball, though, features larger rosters and a longer season, which creates additional complications. And while Harper and Trout are on board with the idea, Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman has expressed some trepidation.
"The Olympics in the middle of the year is definitely tough," Freeman said. "You can see maybe eight or nine pitchers that aren't pitching in the All-Star Game because they pitched during their weekend series. So it's going to be hard. I truly believe baseball should be a global sport. It's my favorite sport. But it's going to be hard. I don't know how they're going to make it work by doing the Olympics at that time."
Freeman also pointed to the physical toll players would have to endure, citing the WBC as an example. Organizations, Freeman said, invest heavily in their stars with the expectation that they will contribute to their clubs, making the risks of injury and fatigue impossible to overlook.
"You see so many times that guys pitch in that, that are throwing 100 miles per hour and then two months later during their actual season they get hurt," the 17-year MLB veteran continued. "You also have the playoffs, plus you have spring training. You're looking at almost 200 plus games already."
Baseball has been played at the Olympics only six times, most recently in Japan in 2021. Five years ago, professional players were allowed to play -- including some notable minor-league players like Julio Rodríguez -- but players on 40-man MLB rosters were restricted from participating. Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball, the country's top league, however, did pause its season to allow players to participate in the 2021 Games. Team USA, with a roster full of prospects and unsigned veterans (like Todd Frazier and David Robertson) finished with the Silver Medal in 2021.
Logistics, at this juncture, remain a significant hurdle for 2028. Insurance policies and hotel accommodations are among the issues that still must be resolved.
But the divide between MLB and the Players Association is, once again, playing out in negotiations. In its latest proposal, the league included a mandatory-participation agreement for select players. Those who violate the requirements could be placed on the restricted list without pay or service time.
The MLBPA has pushed back on the proposal, objecting to both the league's disciplinary authority and what it views as an overly heavy-handed approach from commissioner Rob Manfred and MLB.
"The proposals they made, in terms of what the discipline would be, the ramifications of a player who doesn't want to do that, in our view, were very extreme," Meyer said. "But that's currently being discussed. So again, we're at an early stage. All of that remains to be determined."
With last year's thrilling World Series followed by a memorable WBC, baseball gained momentum in the mainstream sports landscape. While a looming Dec. 1 lockout will likely disrupt that, players also feel that opting out of the Summer Olympics -- particularly with the Games being held on American soil -- would halt much of the traction baseball has gained with the masses.
"Baseball is in such a great spot," Harper said. "I don't think there's any crowds or eyes that are bigger than the Olympics, TV-wise or anything else."
