Will We See Bryce Harper Play Baseball at the 2028 Olympics?

If you tune in to this summer’s Paris Olympics, you’ll get to see some of the world’s top athletes competing in a host of different sports. One that won’t be on the schedule — unlike the 2020 Olympics — is baseball. At issue is the overlap between MLB’s schedule and that of the Summer Games — though it’s worth mentioning that in 2021, Japan’s domestic baseball league took a break for the Tokyo Games. In related news, the gold medal in baseball that year went to Japan.

Baseball is among the sports set to return four years from now, when Los Angeles will host the Summer Olympics. Earlier this year, MLB’s top brass heard a proposal to allow the league’s best players to compete for their national teams in LA. “You’ve heard me before: Love that combination of nationalism and sport. I’m good on that,” commissioner Rob Manfred said at the time. “The cons, it’s the logistics. Everyday games are tough. They’re tough.”

One player who does sound enthusiastic about the prospect of competing in the 2028 Olympics is the Phillies’ Bryce Harper. The Athletic’s Roshane Thomas reports that Harper indicated his interest before the Phillies took on the Mets in London this weekend.

“I would love to be part of that. We have the [World Baseball Classic] but it’s not the same. People can say as much as they want but the Olympics is so worldwide,” Harper told The Athletic. “The WBC is great and brings a lot of people together, but the Olympics is something you dream about playing in.”

There Was a Substantial Doping Scandal at the Tokyo Olympics

A group of 23 Chinese swimmers are at the center of it

It’s not hard to see the appeal of an Olympics that would include Major League Baseball’s best players. Last year’s World Baseball Classic proved that there was an audience for watching top players represent their countries – with a few memorable narratives emerging from the tournament. One can only imagine what that might look like with the added spotlight of the Olympic Games — though maybe, within the next few years, we won’t have to.