Philadelphia Phillies star Bryce Harper has expressed strong support for allowing Major League Baseball players to participate in the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. He highlighted the potential benefits for growing the sport during an interview. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred also indicated progress toward an agreement.
Bryce Harper, the Philadelphia Phillies star, voiced his enthusiasm for Major League Baseball players competing in the 2028 Olympics during a conversation with USA Today’s Bob Nightengale on Friday.
“I hope LA ’28 happens,” Harper said. “I’m hoping the next CBA agreement can happen where teams and players can come to an agreement on taking that two-week break, especially it being in our home country. It would be great for baseball. You talk about growing the game and being able to grow it at that, at the highest level would help out tremendously.”
Harper distinguished the Olympics from other international competitions like the World Baseball Classic, which began on Wednesday. “Obviously the WBC is great, but it’s not the Olympics,” he said. “That’s no disrespect to the WBC or anything. But everybody knows when the Olympics are on, everybody is watching. Doesn’t matter what sport it is. It could be the most random sport and it has all of the fans watching it.”
Baseball has a varied history in the Olympics. It became an official sport in 1992 and remained until 2008, though major leaguers were never permitted to play. The sport was absent from the 2012 and 2016 Games, returned for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics without current MLB players, and was excluded again for the 2024 Paris Games.
Last month, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred echoed Harper's sentiments during the Winter Olympics. “I think that we’re a lot closer to [an agreement] than the last time we talked about it,” Manfred said. “There are some issues with the MLBPA that we just need to resolve. I sense a lot of momentum towards playing in L.A. in 2028. I think we’re going to get over those issues. I think people have come to appreciate that the Olympics on U.S. soil is a unique marketing opportunity for the game. I think we’ve got a lot of players interested in doing it and I feel pretty good about the idea that we’ll get there.”
