A handful of Yankees, at different levels, have worn their country’s jersey at some point during their road to The Bronx.
Aaron Judge has not.
Which makes the idea of possibly competing for Team USA in the 2028 Olympics all the more compelling to the Yankees captain — if Major League Baseball actually gives him and his counterparts the chance to do so.
“I’d love to play,” Judge said Wednesday at Yankee Stadium. “If they give us the opportunity — I don’t know what the ruling [is] or [if] anything has come out about that.
“But I’m all in on that.”
Last month at the All-Star Game, commissioner Rob Manfred — while not committing to allowing major league players to participate in the Olympics — said that the early player interest in doing so (from stars such as Bryce Harper to Shohei Ohtani) was “important.”
There is certainly plenty of it inside the Yankees clubhouse, beginning with another one of the game’s biggest stars in Judge.
“There’s very few opportunities to get to do that and especially, hopefully, in the prime of my career where I can still do it and make an impact, I’d love to,” said Judge, who would be 36 for the 2028 Olympics. “I’ve never represented my country before, never got invited to those Team USA [camps], never really made the cut for those. Hopefully now I can make the cut.”
He’ll need some help from MLB to make it happen.
Baseball is returning to the Olympics in 2028 in Los Angeles, but when it has been included in past Summer Games, MLB has not allowed players on big league rosters to participate.
Manfred left the door open for that changing this time around, though it will likely be decided in the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, with the current one set to expire in Dec. 2026.
Manfred said he had an initial conversation with the owners about the Olympics a few months ago and has had an “ongoing dialogue” with Casey Wasserman, the chairman of LA 2028 who also met with the owners recently at the suggestion of Manfred.
“We’re talking about what can be done, what exactly it would look like, what are the compromises we would have to make in terms of our season?” Manfred said in July. “I remain open-minded on that topic.”
The logistics remain the biggest hurdle.
From the outset, the most feasible solution would be to take a page from the NHL. In years when the league has allowed its players to participate in the Winter Olympics, the NHL has not held an All-Star Game, instead using that time to hold a two-week break.
MLB’s All-Star break typically lasts just four days, but could they expand that to a week or 10 days, or even two weeks, and still cram 162 games in the schedule? The fact that the 2028 Games are in Los Angeles would help, given that players would not need to travel far or adjust to completely a different time zone.
“Hopefully there’s a way to figure it out, if they can extend the All-Star break or find a way to make it work for us,” Judge said.
Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball allowed its players to participate in the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo by pausing its season for three weeks.
Even if MLB does not want to have that long of an All-Star break, there are other ways to go about it.
“What would they do if players left, just put them on the restricted list?” wondered Gerrit Cole, who certainly would be interested in pitching in the Olympics. “They just don’t take pay for two weeks?”
There likely also would need to be some party involved taking out insurance on the players in case of injury — though getting financial compensation would only slightly ease the pain for a team’s ace or star player getting hurt in the Olympics (ask the Mets about Edwin Diaz and the World Baseball Classic).
“It’s just tough because you don’t want to go over there and potentially get hurt and not be able to play for the team that’s paying you,” Nestor Cortes said. “But yes, it would be cool, and I would definitely try to participate if the opportunity arises, for sure.”
Cortes was set to play for Team USA in the WBC last year before he strained his hamstring on the eve of spring training, which forced him to pull out. He also previously has expressed an interest in playing for Cuba — where he was born before moving to Florida at a young age — which could provide another potential landing spot.
Judge had just signed his nine-year, $360 million contract in the offseason heading into the 2023 WBC, so it was not the best timing for him to leave his first spring training as captain of the Yankees to go play for Team USA.
But it does seem to be on his bucket list.
“I know the World Baseball Classic’s another opportunity for us to do it, but this is the Olympics,” Judge said. “This is something that as a kid, I remember watching the Summer Olympics. Especially when they were in Atlanta in [1996]. I would love it.”
Cole pitched for the collegiate national team in the summers of 2009 and 2010, but would be eager to do it again on the Olympic stage in 2028.
“It’s really special to represent your country,” Cole said. “That would be a really cool thing to be able to do that again.”
Cole would be 37 that summer, either in the final year or penultimate year (if he exercises an opt-out this offseason and the Yankees void it by adding a 10th year to his deal) of his contract.
Austin Wells would be 29. Like Judge, the emerging catcher did not make any of the USA teams in high school or college, but would be eager to play in the Olympics if it becomes a possibility.
“I think that would be sick,” Wells said. “I would love to do that. Getting to play for your country would be a really cool opportunity. I think it’d be really hard to pass up if the opportunity presented itself. … I don’t know how it works, but going and playing for however long it would take — a week or two weeks — I wouldn’t pass up that opportunity.”
Juan Soto would be the star of the Dominican Republic team. Jazz Chisholm Jr. would be the best player on a Bahamas team (if they make the tournament).
Perhaps Roki Sasaki could be a Yankee by then and pitch for Japan.
But only if MLB lets it happen.
For now, the Yankees are left enjoying these Summer Olympics in Paris, the last ones for the foreseeable future that won’t involve baseball.
“The rings are my favorite in gymnastics,” said Cole, who also likes the swimming and track events. “Just imagining how my shoulder would feel after those — terrible.”
A free pass changeup
My colleague Joel Sherman brought up an interesting point earlier this week regarding the intentional walk and Judge — and if MLB should amend its rules to make it more difficult for teams to repeatedly put Judge on base without giving him a chance to swing the bat.
Aaron Boone was asked this week whether the rules should change, and he took a long pause before answering.
“It’s interesting,” Boone said. “I haven’t thought of it that way. I think the one thing Major League Baseball has done a good job of recently is having the courage to do some things that haven’t always been in line with the way MLB has done things. We’ve probably been, in comparison to other sports, slower to change a rule or do something that’s drastic or different.
“I don’t know how I feel about that. But it’s an interesting thought.”
Time for a lineup flip-flop?
In that light, there’s been a lot of talk this week about needing to protect Judge in the lineup and whether the Yankees should flip-flop Soto and Judge — which Boone said he has at least contemplated over the last few weeks.
Before that happens, the Yankees should see more of Wells in the cleanup spot.
He has looked the part in the nearly three weeks since he was moved there, and though the threat of his bat hasn’t stopped teams from intentionally walking Judge (or just pitching around him), Wells has the potential to change that the more he hits there.
