LA Olympics schedule could kill any chance of seeing Dodgers compete

In 2028, Los Angeles will host the Summer Olympics for the third time in the city's history, and Dodger Stadium will play a prominent role. Baseball hasn't always been a mainstay sport in the games and was left out of last year's competitions in Paris, but it'll return as a tournament sport in LA with games played out at the Dodgers' home field.

The question of whether or not MLB players will compete in the Olympics has gone unanswered so far, but it's likely that it'll be left to the teams' discretion. While major leaguers didn't appear to be explicitly banned from the World Baseball Classic in 2023, teams seemed to discourage their pitchers in particular from competing. Notably, however, Commissioner Rob Manfred has been supportive of major leaguers taking part.

However, the Olympics' organizing body announced that their five-day tournament would take place from July 15-20, which is likely to run right up against a tentpole event for MLB — the All-Star break.

Manfred said that he's working closely with LA28 to see if the schedule can be changed despite the committee's apparent early stubbornness.

2028 Los Angeles Olympics will stage baseball tournament July 15-20, which could keep Dodgers from competing

Manfred is clearly stuck between a rock and hard place here. He wants players to compete in the Olympics to give the game more global reach, but if all of the game's best are busy doing that, then there goes interest in the All-Star Game.

However, it also sort of makes sense. Although players like to have the break to reset going into the second half, it could make their decision making about whether or not to compete in the Olympics easier, given that they wouldn't have to miss almost a week's worth of regular season games.

MLB could also, of course, move the All-Star break, but then they'd run into the same problem of losing players for a week.

Ultimately, decisions are going to be left between the players and their teams. While fans would love to see superstars descend on LA to represent their countries for a repeat of the WBC, the same worries about injuries incurred in a non-MLB tournament are going to persist. It'd be a huge loss for the game if we didn't see guys like Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge compete on such a massive stage, but these potential concerns are valid.