ARLINGTON, Texas — Major League Baseball’s World Baseball Classic was so successful it effectively buried the entire 2026 spring training season, and thus has made Opening Day a surprise.

It’s time for baseball’s regular season ... who knew?

As evidenced by the success of the NHL’s top players playing in the Olympics, there is a way for MLB to put its All-Stars in the biggest international tournament on earth, and that should be a priority. The WBC, which turned 20 this year, is good, but the best way for MLB to grow is for MLB All-Stars playing in the Olympics.

“Based on the World Baseball Classic, anytime we have the opportunity to showcase our game on an international stage, I think it’s a great thing for the game,” Texas Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young said Monday. “If that means we get to baseball in the Olympics again, I think it would be wonderful.”

MLB players want to play in the Olympics

During the most recent WBC, Philadelphia Phillies All-Star Bryce Harper said the quiet part out loud when he announced that while that tournament is good, it’s not the Olympics. He told USA Today that he will lobby for MLB to take a break during its 2028 season to participate in the Summer Olympics, held in Los Angeles.

“I would love to see it. I think it would be amazing, just so much fun for the players and the fans,” Texas Rangers veteran relief pitcher Tyler Alexander said Monday. “I think there is real interest on the part of the players. It would be awesome if we could figure out a way to do that, because, in the past, when baseball has been in the Olympics, it’s been younger prospects, or fringe, older guys.”

He’s talking minor leaguers.

“I do think,” he said, “there is enough interest to do this.”

Baseball has an iffy history in the Olympics

Despite baseball’s global popularity it remains in the “Friend Zone” with the International Olympic Committee (IOC). It was not until the ‘92 Games in Barcelona was baseball a medal sport.

Baseball was a medal sport from 1992 to 2008, but, unlike the NBA, the MLB would not make any adjustments to send its best players to the Olympics. The NBA does not have to amend its schedule for its best players to play in the two-week tournament, and the international growth in the game started when the “Dream Team” appeared, also in the ‘92 Games.

Baseball’s lack of All-Stars in the Olympics has not made a dent in the growth of the game. The IOC dropped it but, under pressure from Japan, which loves baseball, the sport was brought back for the ‘20 Games in Tokyo, and ‘28. Baseball was not played in the 2024 Olympics in Paris because the French don’t play it.

After ‘28, baseball’s future on the Olympic schedule is TBD.

If players like Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto, Vlad Guerrero and Fernando Tatis are available and allowed to play in the Olympics, the topic of the baseball in the Olympics is not a discussion.

The NHL’s blueprint for MLB to play in the Olympics

The shadow over the 2026 MLB season is the upcoming negotiation between the MLB Players Association and the league for a new collective bargaining agreement. You will know how serious the players are about the Olympics if this subject comes up during these negotiations.

NHL players made playing in the Olympics so much of a priority they have used it as a bargaining chip in collective bargaining agreements with a league that, for good reason, has reservations about sending its best players to play in a tournament where the risk is high, and the reward can be highly subjective.

The NHL players have played in the 1998, ‘02, ‘06, ‘14 and ‘26 Olympics.

For the “name” players to participate in the Olympics will require MLB to do what the NHL does and take a two-week break in the middle of its regular season, and agree to pages of specifics between the union, and IOC.

The ‘28 Summer Olympics is July 14 to 30, right around MLB’s All-Star break. The MLB All-Star break, however, is only three days.

“I have no idea how we would go about working that into the summer schedule,” Alexander said. “Do we reduce the schedule? Start later, or go longer?”

Follow hockey. The NHL takes a two-week break to accommodate the Olympics, and those who don’t play in it typically take a short vacation followed by a return to the team’s facility to train.

The most recent version of the Winter Games in Italy, where the U.S. defeated Canada in overtime to win the gold medal, was so successful that it’s hard to envision future Olympics without the NHL players.

The players want it, and the league has reluctantly accepted that a break in the middle of its season once every four years is worth the risk, and the headaches, to enjoy the power, prestige and reach that only the Olympics creates.

The days of people watching amateur tournaments are from a different era; if a tournament is going to generate attention, it must have the celebrity names. The names that played in the World Baseball Classic.

This most recent version of the event was everything that its founder, former MLB commissioner Bud Selig, wanted when he hatched this idea more than 20 years ago. It’s global, and the game is played by its biggest stars, who represent their country in a fun, colorful tournament that matters.

Baseball and, specifically, Major League Baseball’s best way to grow is to send its best players to compete in the Olympics.

If the Olympics comes up in the collective bargaining agreement negotiations, we’ll know if this is a priority.

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