MLB Weighs Olympic Participation After NFL Flag Football Approval

This week’s approval of active NFL players competing in the 2028 Summer Olympics, one that still has plenty of unresolved layers, could be a mere prelude to an even more complex situation: the presence of MLB players. 

Baseball is back in the Olympic program for 2028 in Los Angeles, continuing a back-and-forth situation that saw the sport in the global competition 16 times between 1900 and 2008, then away from the Games for 13 years, returning for the pandemic-delayed 2021 Olympics in Tokyo, and then absent again last year in Paris. 

In addition to the wishes of local organizers, a core component of that variance has been the lack of competing MLB players. Historically, the league has been resistant to shutting down the schedule in a peak summer period to allow for that participation, instead often having minor-league players help comprise rosters. That dynamic also helped lead to the creation of the World Baseball Classic more than two decades ago, with that tournament owned and operated by the league and MLB Players Association and played in preseason windows. 

A different conversation, however, is now emerging between league commissioner Rob Manfred and LA28 president and chairman Casey Wasserman. In part because of the Summer Olympics returning to the U.S. after 32 years, the two have had an ongoing dialogue about ways that MLB players could be involved. 

Last year, Manfred said of 2028, “When you’re in L.A., it is an opportunity to think about,” a sentiment he has repeated at multiple points so far this year, though he has acknowledged the situation remains “complicated.” With the NFL formally on board for the flag football competition, LA28 is looking to reach a similar agreement with MLB.

“It’s the right thing for the sport of baseball, it’s the right thing for the players, and it’s certainly the right thing for the Olympics,” Wasserman told the Associated Press. “I think when things make sense for everybody, you can usually find a way to get things done.”

Additional Considerations

A further factor in the discussions is that Dodger Stadium, the home venue of the defending World Series champion Dodgers, will be the site of the 2028 Olympic baseball games. The Dodgers, led in part by Japanese phenom Shohei Ohtani, have been at the center of MLB’s accelerating globalization. 

Similar to the NFL, much of the baseball discussion has centered on health and safety protocols, and related insurance provisions should big-league players be involved. Because MLB will be in the heart of its 2028 season during the July 14–30 timing for the Olympics, further consideration involves managing the schedule and the impacts of a 17-day period that often generates some of baseball’s largest attendance and viewership of the year.

There is a parallel, however, in hockey. The NHL has often suspended its season to allow for Olympic participation, and a recent deal involving that league, the NHL Players’ Association, and IIHF calls for more such involvement.