Several Yankees players, at various levels, have donned their country’s jersey at some point on their journey to the Bronx.
Aaron Judge is not like that.
That makes the idea of potentially playing for the U.S. in the 2028 Olympics even more appealing for the Yankees captain — if MLB actually gives him and his colleagues the chance.
“I want to play,” Judge said Wednesday at Yankee Stadium. “If they give us the opportunity, who knows what the verdict will be. [is] or [if] Nothing has been revealed about that.
“But I’m committed to it.”
At last month’s All-Star Game, Commissioner Rob Manfred didn’t say whether he would allow major league players to take part in the Olympics, but he did say that the players who had expressed early interest in participating (from Bryce Harper to Shohei Ohtani) were “significant.”
The Yankees clubhouse certainly has a lot going for it, including Judge, one of the biggest stars in baseball.
“You don’t get those opportunities very often, and it would be nice to do it and make an impact, especially at the peak of your career,” said Judge, who will be 36 at the 2028 Olympics. “I’ve never represented a country before, I’ve never been invited to play for the U.S. national team. [camps]I have never passed the selection process before. Now I think I can pass the selection process.
To make that happen, they’ll need help from MLB.
Baseball will return to the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028, but when baseball was included in past Summer Olympics, MLB did not allow major league players to participate.
Manfred left the door open for change However, as the current collective bargaining agreement expires in December 2026, this will likely be decided in a new collective bargaining agreement.
Manfred said he had initial discussions about the Olympics with the owners several months ago and has been in “ongoing dialogue” with LA 2028 chairman Casey Wasserman, who met with the owners recently at Manfred’s suggestion.
“We’re talking about what we can do, what that might look like, what compromises we might have to make with the season,” Manfred said in July. “I’m keeping an open mind on that issue.”
Logistics remains the biggest obstacle.
From the get-go, the most feasible solution would be to follow the example of the NHL, which has not held an All-Star Game in years when it has allowed players to participate in the Winter Olympics, instead using that time for a two-week break.
Could MLB’s All-Star break, which is typically only four days, be extended to a week, 10 days or even two weeks and still pack 162 games into the schedule? The fact that the 2028 tournament will be held in Los Angeles could help, given that players wouldn’t have to travel far or adjust to an entirely different time zone.
“We’re hopeful that if we can extend the All-Star break or find a way to do it in our favor, we can find a solution,” Judge said.
Japan’s professional baseball has suspended its season for three weeks to allow players to take part in the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo.
Even if MLB doesn’t want to extend the All-Star break that long, there are other ways to make it happen.
“When guys leave, what do they do? Do they just put them on the restricted list?” questioned Gerrit Cole, who would definitely be interested in pitching in the Olympics. “Do they not get paid for two weeks?”
Officials will also need to buy insurance for players in case of injury, but financial compensation will only slightly ease the pain if a team’s star player or star gets hurt at the Olympics (just ask the Mets about Edwin Diaz and the World Baseball Classic).
“It’s really tough because I don’t want to go there and get hurt and not be able to play for a team that’s paying my salary,” Nestor Cortez said, “But of course, it would be awesome to be a part of it and if the opportunity arises, I definitely want to be a part of it.”
Cortes was set to play for the U.S. in last year’s World Baseball Classic but was forced to withdraw after suffering a hamstring injury on the eve of spring training, and he has previously expressed a desire to play in Cuba, where he was born before moving to Florida as a child, which could be another possible destination.
Judge had just signed a nine-year, $360 million contract in the offseason leading up to the 2023 World Baseball Classic, so it wasn’t the best time to leave his first spring training as Yankees captain and play for the U.S. national team.
But it’s apparently on his bucket list.
“I know the World Baseball Classic is another opportunity for us, but this is the Olympics,” Judge said. “This is something I remember watching as a kid, the Summer Olympics, especially when it was in Atlanta. [1996]… I would really appreciate it.”
Cole pitched for the varsity team in the summers of 2009 and 2010 and hopes to do so again on the Olympic stage in 2028.
“Representing your country is really special,” Cole said. “It would be really awesome to do it again.”
Cole will turn 37 that summer and will be in the final year of his contract, or the penultimate year if he exercises his opt-out this offseason and the Yankees add a 10th year to his contract, overriding the opt-out.
Austin Wells is 29 years old. Like Judge, the up-and-coming catcher didn’t make the U.S. national team in high school or college, but he would love to compete in the Olympics if the opportunity arises.
“I think that would be awesome,” Wells said. “I’d love to do it. It’s such an amazing opportunity to represent your country. If that opportunity came up, I think it would be tough to pass it up. … I don’t know how it works, but whether I play a week, two weeks, however long it is, I wouldn’t pass up that opportunity.”
The star of the Dominican Republic team will be Juan Soto, and the best player on the Bahamas team (if they make it to the tournament) will be Jazz Chisholm Jr.
By that time, Roki Sasaki will probably have joined the Yankees and be playing as a pitcher for the Japanese national team.
But that’s only if MLB allows it.
For now, the Yankees are enjoying the Summer Olympics in Paris, which will be the last Olympics in the near future that doesn’t involve baseball.
“The rings are my favorite part of gymnastics,” said Cole, who also enjoys swimming and track and field. “Just thinking about what my shoulders would feel like after that is awful.”
Free pass changeup
My colleague Joel Sherman made an interesting point earlier this week regarding intentional walks and Judge and whether MLB should change the rules to make it harder for teams to repeatedly get on base without giving Judge a chance to swing the bat.
Asked this week whether the rule should be changed, Aaron Boone took a long pause before responding.
“It’s interesting,” Boone said, “I’d never thought of it that way. One of the things MLB has done well recently is to have the courage to do things that aren’t necessarily in keeping with the MLB way of doing things. Maybe they’ve been slower than other sports to change the rules and do things daring and do things differently.”
“I don’t know how I feel about that. But it’s an interesting thought.”
Is it time to refresh your lineup?
With that in mind, there has been a lot of talk this week about the need to protect Judge in the lineup and whether the Yankees should swap Soto for Judge, but Boone said he’s been thinking about it for at least the past few weeks.
Before that happens, the Yankees will likely use Wells more in the cleanup role.
Wells has played in that role for nearly three weeks since moving there, and while his hitting threat hasn’t prevented teams from intentionally walking Judge (or simply pitching around him), Wells has the potential to change that the more he hits there.
