World Baseball Classic

Baseball has never been more relevant across the globe, its international popularity soaring following the World Baseball Classic. Major League Baseball’s Opening Day arrives this week, but anticipation is also building for the next great international competition, the most venerated of them all: the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

There, baseball could have its greatest chance in two decades to convince tournament organizers that the sport is again worthy of permanent inclusion in the Summer Games. Pierre Ducrey, sports director of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), told The Athletic it’s “impossible for me to tell you at this stage” if baseball’s Olympic status could change, but with a new president installed last year, the IOC is taking a fresh look at its program.

“It’s clear that it’s not only an American sport,” Ducrey said of baseball. “There is growing participation in Europe, very strong holds in Asia. It is a sport that has a lot of following worldwide.

“Of course, I would say the strongest place for it is, to a degree, in the American continent. … (But) the league is getting stronger. You can see the success of the World Baseball Classic, which is a very strong and positive sign of the health of the sport and the interest that there is for it, for international baseball.”

In the past two years, Japanese players Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto have helped the Los Angeles Dodgers win consecutive World Series titles. MLB began its 2025 regular season with games between the Dodgers and Chicago Cubs in Tokyo, to much fanfare.

Then, just a week ago, a stellar rendition of the WBC — the 20-team international tournament spearheaded by MLB and the players’ union — concluded with a victory for Team Venezuela over the United States. The championship game drew more than 10 million viewers on Fox, the broadcaster said, a record for the competition.

“With the emergence of the World Baseball Classic as the premier global baseball event, MLB has made great strides in our position internationally,” MLB said in a statement. “Since its inception in 2006, 30 countries and territories have participated in the WBC and its qualifiers.”

The league said it has played 36 regular-season games outside of the continental United States and Canada since 2008, spanning Australia, England, Korea, Japan, Mexico and Puerto Rico.

While there are other international baseball tournaments before the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles — including qualifiers for the three remaining spots in the Olympic field of six — none will include big leaguers as the 2028 Olympics are expected to. The league and the union are both optimistic that a deal will be reached that, for the first time ever, allows Olympic participation for the top players in the world.

“We see the Olympic Games as the culmination of a sporting career, so obviously, we want to see best on best,” Ducrey said. “We support LA28 in their discussion with MLB, with the MLBPA, to try and make sure that we can be a positive force in that conversation.”

Ducrey said the conversations that led National Hockey League players to participate in the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Milan Cortina are similar to those going on in baseball now. “We were very pleased with the outcome,” he said.

The absence of MLB players is one of a few reasons the IOC pushed baseball out of its regular summer program after the 2008 Games in Beijing. Now, for as much as has changed for baseball in the past two decades, proof for the IOC that baseball is in a different place might lie in how the 2028 Games unfold.

“We see the Olympic tournament as a great platform to try and confirm that the sport continues to grow and that it has a lot of appeal in many countries across the world,” Ducrey said. “(Our review is) following outside of the Games, but it’s following also inside the Olympic program.”

Near-term questions to be sorted through

LA28, the organizing body responsible for the L.A. Games, along with the IOC, has already changed its schedule to try to better accommodate MLB players. The Olympic baseball competition is slated to begin July 13, 2028, at Dodger Stadium. The opening ceremony is set for the next day, with baseball games then running again from July 15–19.

Initially, LA28 announced a schedule that would have held baseball from July 15-20. MLB sought to begin play earlier to minimize how long the league needs to extend its All-Star break to accommodate the Olympics. The All-Star Game is likely to be played July 11 on the West Coast, making July 12 a travel day for players who participate in both, likely a large group.

LA28 encourages athletes to stay in the Olympic Village, which will be at UCLA, but MLB players could well wind up with alternative housing. That’s one matter MLB, the union and LA28 are sorting through, along with insurance for players, which covers MLB teams if their players are injured during the Olympics.

“Obviously cannot and will not go into the details of this conversation, but yes, we know that when it comes to having players with significant contracts participating in the Olympic tournament in the middle of their season, there are conversations regarding insurance,” Ducrey said. “The expectation will be that this topic is being tackled in the discussions between LA28 and Major League Baseball and the PA.”

While MLB owners and players are eager to play in the ’28 Olympics, it’s unclear what participation will be viable, if any, for subsequent Olympics held outside the U.S. The 2032 Summer Games are set for Brisbane, Australia. Whether any MLB players could make the trip there — or to other Summer Games abroad — seems a key question for the sport’s Olympic permanence that might not be answered for some time.

If baseball became permanent, perhaps in time, more than six teams could participate. There are also increased financial incentives for national federations.

“At the moment, we have to lobby for each Olympic Games,” Richard Baker, spokesperson for baseball’s international organizing body, the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC), said this month.

For Brisbane, one possibility is that MLB teams could send a small delegation of players from each team, rather than a full slate of players, according to a person briefed on baseball’s international plans who was not authorized to speak publicly. But MLB and the union would have to agree on such a plan. The IOC is likely to make decisions regarding Brisbane by the end of this year, Ducrey said.

A new voice at the IOC

There is measured excitement on baseball’s international scene that the sport’s standing with the IOC could eventually change. A new president took over the IOC last year, Kirsty Coventry, who has introduced an initiative called “Fit for the Future” that intends to refresh the organization’s decision-making, including how the IOC chooses its participating competitions.

Ducrey likened the process to selecting artists for a music festival, but also indicated the IOC is trying to move away from a mindset of “permanent” sports to begin with.

“I think it’s logical, when you organize an event, that you constantly ask yourself, what should be in the event?” he said. “I guess permanent sport on the program is maybe something that, if you create a dynamic process for the review of the program, I guess you cannot be permanent.

“We just want to make sure that there is a way for us to look at our program on a regular basis, and just assess what is the best fit for the different audiences that we have, but also in the local context.”

The field in L.A. won’t be lacking for excitement, so long as MLB players make their way.

Team Venezuela celebrates after winning its first World Baseball Classic title with a 3-2 victory over Team USA. (Al Bello / Getty Images)

The U.S., the Dominican Republic and Venezuela have already secured spots in the 2028 Olympics. The latter two clubs qualified during the WBC, while the U.S. has an automatic bid as the host country.

One team from Asia and one team from Europe/Oceania will qualify during a November 2027, 16-team tournament called the Premier12, hosted by the WBSC.

The WBSC plans to then hold a six-team tournament no later than March 2028 to determine the final Olympic spot. (The final entrant cannot come from North or South America, however.)

“The excitement for the LA28 baseball tournament was palpable during the World Baseball Classic,” said Shana Ferguson, LA28 chief of sport and games delivery, in a statement. “It was incredible to celebrate the teams from the Dominican Republic and Venezuela as the first teams to secure their Olympic spots, and now, as we prepare to welcome America’s favorite pastime back to the Olympic Games, athletes from around the world are setting their sights on LA28.”

Some stateside baseball officials have long believed that the IOC will always deem baseball an American sport, above all. Asked about that perception, Ducrey said, “Depending on who you ask, you’re going to get a different response.”

“That’s the beauty of the Olympic program,” Ducrey said. “We try to have something for everyone. There are sports which are extremely popular in Asia, maybe not as popular in Europe; very popular in Europe, not so much in America. So our objective is to try to cater for all the audiences. If baseball is immensely popular in the Americas, that’s good news, because we know it will capture the attention of the audience in that country.

“God knows that Dodger Stadium is one of the best stages you can think of for baseball. … Olympic Games baseball and Dodger Stadium, that’s an amazing combination.”