The 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles will mark baseball's return to the slate of Olympic events.
With the Summer games taking place in the middle of the Major League Baseball season, it's nigh impossible to carve out a schedule that allows MLB players to participate and represent their countries.
With the games in the city he now calls home, Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani wants in on the action.
He told Sports Illustrated back in July that getting MLB players into the Olympics would help provide new exposure for baseball.
"I’d like to play in the Olympics,” Ohtani told SI's Stephanie Apstein. “Also, knowing the fact that there will be non-baseball fans watching the games as well, I think it would be really good for the baseball industry.”
It's hard to argue with that thought process. Given the way athletes like sprinter Gabby Thomas, gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik (Pommel Horse Guy) and countless others become household names every four years, it stands to reason that baseball players could receive a much-needed marketing boost.
One of the issues MLB has is that its players aren't particularly well-marketed. Getting players into international competition where they can play on a big stage in front of more non-baseball fans could be a big deal.
The World Baseball Classic provides an opportunity to get MLB players on an international stage, but it doesn't bring in a non-baseball fan audience the way the Olympics do.
Given that Ohtani, the game's biggest star, wants to participate in the games, MLB should take a long, hard look at making it happen. It wouldn't be easy for the league to effectively wipe out two weeks of its season in the middle of July, but the complications would be worth the potential reward.
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