Major League Baseball, Union Could Let Players in 2028 Olympics

Major League Baseball met with organizers of the 2028 Olympic Summer Games this week ahead of the MLB All-Star Game in Atlanta as movement continues to see if MLB players will be allowed to play in the Games for the first time.

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said Olympic officials were meeting with the Major League Baseball Players Association this week as well.

“It is a opportunity to market the game on a really global stage,” Manfred told the Baseball Writers’ Association of America on Tuesday. “Obviously the clubs are going to have to endorse this. I mean, it’s a big deal.”

The 2028 Olympic baseball tournament will be from July 15–20 at Dodger Stadium, which hosted baseball as a demonstration sport in the 1984 Games. The tournament will feature six teams, divided into two groups of three.

The preliminary round will take place over three days, with two games per day at 11:00 a.m. and 7 p.m. local time. The top team from each group will advance directly to the semifinals while the second- and third-place teams will meet in the two quarterfinal games on July 18 to determine the remaining semifinalists.

The semifinals will be held July 19, followed by the bronze and gold medal games on July 20 at 11:00 a.m. and 7 p.m. local time. The 2028 Games are the seventh time baseball has been in the Olympics and first since 2020 in Tokyo when Japan beat the U.S. to win the gold medal, which at the time had snapped a 12-year drought of the game in the Games.

“They put out a schedule. They tell you it’s not going to move. We’ll see whether there’s any movement on that,” Manfred said. “It is possible to take it, to play the All-Star Game in its normal spot, have a single break that would be longer, obviously, but still play 162 games without bleeding into the middle of November. That is possible, OK? It would require significant accommodations, but it’s possible.”

MLB did not allow players on 40-man rosters to participate in Tokyo Olympics, when Nippon Professional Baseball interrupted its season.

“There’s a lot of work that still needs to be done,” players’ union head Tony Clark told the BBWAA in a separate session. “We do know players are interested in playing, whether it’s for the Team USA or any number of other teams around the world. … There’s just a lot of conversation that needs to be had sooner rather than later to see how viable this is, but we’re hopeful that we can figure our way through it for the benefit of the game.”