Why Rob Manfred is Optimistic About MLB Players Participating in 2028 LA Olympics

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said Saturday he feels players may be able to participate in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics because team owners have “crossed the line” towards supporting the initiative.

“I am positive about it. I think that the owners have kind of crossed the line in terms of, we’d like to do it if we can possibly make it work,” Manfred said ahead of Game 2 of the 2025 World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays (h/t Ronald Blum of the Associated Press).

Manfred added, “There are logistical issues that still need to be worked on.”

The MLB did not allow players on 40-man rosters to participate when the most recent Summer Olympics took place in Tokyo in 2021.

Manfred said in July that teams would need to endorse player participation before MLB could move forward with a potential plan.

The commissioner’s comments came shortly before he discussed the importance of growing baseball as an international game in a Saturday night appearance on MLB Network.

Active MLB players have not been allowed to participate any of the six times baseball has been named an Olympic sport, although MLB was initially expected to change that standard for Tokyo.

After the Olympics were delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, however, Manfred and MLB ultimately kept players out of Tokyo.

Olympic baseball in Tokyo lasted 10 days between July 28 and Aug. 7, 2021, a stretch of dates Manfred said the year prior was “not ideal.”

The upcoming Olympic competition is currently set to take place at Dodger Stadium from July 15-20, 2028.

Manfred said in July he plans to “see whether there’s any movement” on those dates, per Blum.

“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,” Manfred said in July, per Blum.

Manfred said Saturday that MLB has “made a lot of progress with LA 2028 in terms of the calendar,” per Blum.

The MLB’s focus has now turned to discussions with the players’ union, according to Manfred.

MLBPA executive director Tony Clark said in July that “players are interested” in working out a deal that would allow them to play in Los Angeles.

There was no baseball on the program during the 2024 Paris Games, although the sport was added back to the schedule ahead of the Olympics’ return to the United States.

Manfred has been indicating for over a year that MLB is considering letting players play in Los Angeles. The commissioner said in July 2024 that he was “open-minded” about the possibility of Olympic participation.

LA 2028 might present MLB’s lone opportunity to showcase their players on the Olympic stage in the near future. It has not yet been confirmed if the sport will be featured during the 2032 Olympics in Brisbane, Australia.