Baseball is on track to return in 2028 in Los Angeles at Dodger Stadium. Casey Wasserman, the high-powered agent who shepherded the city’s successful bid for the Games, wants major leaguers representing their countries and met with the owners as a group in February to make his case.
“He was very persuasive,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said.
Wasserman and Manfred have met again since and discussed a potential format.
“We’re talking about what can be done, what exactly would it look like. What are the compromises that we would have to make in terms of our season?” Manfred said. “So I remain open-minded on that topic.”
Shohei Ohtani, Bryce Harper, Paul Skenes, and other stars have said they would want to play.
“It would be great if the opportunity was there,” Harper said this past week. “Having USA on your uniform at the Olympics would be a career highlight.”
The question is how.
MLB could forgo the All-Star Game that year with players instead joining their nations for an eight-team tournament that could be wrapped up in a few days.
A tournament with Canada, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, United States, and Venezuela would encompass most of the top players.
MLB has put its time, effort, and money into the World Baseball Classic, which is next scheduled for 2026. That would not interfere with the Olympics.
There would have to be an agreement with the league, the Players Association, and the Olympics to make it work.
“Forget about what’s going to happen with baseball in the Olympics long term,” Manfred said. “But when you’re in LA and you focus on LA, it is an opportunity that we need to think about.”
MLB Players Association executive director Tony Clark also spoke positively about the Olympics.
“The feedback that we’ve gotten so far from players is such that there is an interest in participating if given an opportunity,” he said.
Along with the Olympics, Manfred took questions from members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America on other topics before the All-Star Game. Here are some highlights:
Robot umps: The automated ball-strike system is coming to the majors at some point. But probably not until 2026 at the earliest.
The system, which is being used in the minors, would first be tested in spring training. That would be next season, “which would make ‘26 a viable possibility,” Manfred said.
The league is still working on determining the definition of the strike zone but has no concerns about tracking the ball.
When ABS is used in the majors, it’s likely to be limited to challenges. Umpires would call balls and strikes as usual with teams having 2-3 challenges a game.
Better demographics: According to Manfred, the median age of the average ticket buyer has gone down by nearly five years.
“That’s a seismic shift,” he said.
Nationally televised games also have higher ratings among viewers ages 18-34.
Manfred feels the rules changes to improve the pace of play have played a large role.
“We have made real progress in terms of putting the best form of baseball on the field for our fans,” he said.
The All-Star Game lasted 2 hours, 28 minutes this year, the fastest since 1988. It was 3:34 in 2018.
All-Star Game uniforms: This was the fourth season that the All-Stars played in generic “American League” and “National League” uniforms instead of their usual uniforms.
The homogenization of the All-Star Game has not been popular among fans or players. Only Nike, which makes the jerseys, seems in favor.
“The conversations have to involve the players, first and foremost,” Manfred said. “But I am aware of the sentiment and I do know why people kind of like that tradition. There will be conversations about that.”
That suggests the players will go back to wearing their team uniforms for the game next season in Atlanta.
This has been a tough year for the league office when it comes to uniforms. Players rebelled in spring training after trying on new Nike jerseys with smaller nameplates and fewer team-centric details.
Then they found the uniform pants fit poorly and became discolored when sweaty. Those issues will be fixed by 2025, the league said.
The A’s moving to Las Vegas: No shovels have been put in the ground but Manfred believes the Athletics will play in Las Vegas in a new ballpark in 2028.
“I talk to [Athletics owner] John [Fisher] regularly. I am comfortable with the progress they’ve made with respect to the construction of the stadium in Las Vegas and his ability to put together the financing necessary,” Manfred said.
Sports gambling: MLB suspended five players in June for gambling, giving a lifetime ban to Pirates infielder Tucupita Marcano. The league also is concerned with players being threatened or harassed by aggrieved gamblers.
Manfred said the league works with “sports betting enterprises” to monitor if players are breaking the longstanding rule against betting on games.
“I really, truly believe that we are in a better position to know what’s going on today than they were in the old days,” he said. “We know what’s going on.”
PITCHING CHANGE
Sox take a new path
with selection of Tolle
The Red Sox selection of TCU lefthander Payton Tolle with the 50th pick of the draft marked a change in direction, if not philosophy. They had not taken a pitcher that high since selecting Tanner Houck 24th overall in 2017.
Tolle’s slot value is $1,846,500. He’ll almost surely be the first pitcher drafted by the Sox to receive a seven-figure bonus since Houck signed for $2.61 million.
The Sox have not signed a pitcher for more than $600,000 since. Houck pitched in the All-Star Game the day after Tolle was drafted.
Tolle is a big dude — 6 feet 6 inches, 250 pounds — with athleticism. He played power forward on his high school basketball team and was a defensive end and tight end in football. He had 13 touchdown receptions as a junior.
Tolle also was a two-way player in college, hitting 18 home runs in three seasons. He started his career at Wichita State (where his pitching coach was former major leaguer Mike Pelfrey) before transferring to TCU.
Tolle’s father, Chad, was a track athlete at Oklahoma State. His mother, Jina, played golf for Wichita State. She died in May.
It’s also interesting to note that first-round pick Braden Montgomery played two years at Stanford before transferring to Texas A&M, and that Tolle, as mentioned, also was a transfer.
There was a time when transferring was a red flag. But in the NIL era, it’s commonplace and teams largely overlook it.
A few other observations on the Red Sox:
▪ Gunnar Henderson of the Orioles on playing against the Sox: “They’re a very aggressive team on the bases. You have to be ready for that. That makes them a tough team to play.
“They have a lot of young guys like we do and having more experience has helped them. It’s a lot of the same guys as last season but they’re better players now.”
▪ Houck was hit in the face by a line drive on June 16, 2023, and was out for five weeks with fractures. He pitched in the All-Star Game on July 16, 2024.
That wasn’t lost on him after his inning against the National League.
“A year ago I was drinking blended soup, which I had to do because I wasn’t allowed to chew anything for a few weeks after the surgery,” he said. “I don’t know where I’m going to be at in a year from now. But took a lot of steps in the right direction and we’ll see where we end up.”
▪ Per Fangraphs.com, the Sox have the most difficult schedule the rest of the season and the Yankees have the third easiest.
▪ Jarren Duran joined Fred Lynn and Ted Williams as the only Sox players to hit a go-ahead homer in the fifth inning or later in the All-Star Game.
Williams belted a three-run walkoff in 1941 in Detroit. He and Joe DiMaggio played the entire game.
Lynn broke a scoreless tie with a two-run shot off Bob Welch in 1980 at Dodger Stadium. Welch was somehow allowed to throw 66 pitches over three innings.
▪ Nelson Chittum, who played for the Sox from 1959-60, died on Monday in Kentucky. He was 91. Chittum was 3-0 with a 1.86 ERA in 27 relief appearances after being acquired from the Cardinals during spring training in ‘59. He was traded to the Dodgers early in the ‘60 season for outfielder Rip Repulski.
ETC.
Pirates’ Skenes
a star standout
With 22-year-old Pirates rookie Paul Skenes, it’s easy to focus on his triple-digit fastball and famous girlfriend, Livvy Dunne. That’s certainly what MLB and Fox did at the All-Star Game.
But there’s a lot of substance there, too.
Skenes pitched the first inning on Tuesday and stayed around for the rest of the game, sitting in the dugout and talking to the other players, particularly the pitchers.
Most players leave the ballpark after coming out of the game to get as much time off before rejoining their teams.
Not Skenes. He soaked in every second of the experience that he could.
“Just being able to talk with the guys was the biggest thing, being able to pick their brains,” he said. “I was in the dugout for a good portion of it, and then I went under and ate, that kind of thing. I was eating with a couple of other All-Star pitchers.
“The only time I’m going to have this opportunity is today with this team. So I just wanted to get as much as I could from them.”
On Monday, Skenes attended the All-Star Game news conference at Globe Life Field wearing a jacket and tie. The two managers, Bruce Bochy and Torey Lovullo, were dressed casually.
Skenes attended the Air Force Academy before transferring to LSU. His coach at Air Force, Mike Kazlausky, recommended that Skenes transfer so he would have the opportunity to play professionally. He otherwise would have been subjected to the same three-year commitment that kept Naval Academy graduate Noah Song from pitching for the Red Sox.
Skenes helped arrange tickets for Kazlausky to attend the All-Star Game.
Skenes was a two-way player at Air Force. He was a reliever as a freshman then started 15 games as a sophomore, going 10-3 with a 2.73 ERA and 96 strikeouts over 85⅔ innings.
He hit .367 with 23 extra-base hits and 38 RBIs in 341 career at-bats.
Skenes is no longer a cadet but he stands at attention for the national anthem before games, wears a jacket and tie on the days he pitches, and treats people respectfully.
He hopes to one day return to the Air Force Academy in some capacity.
“I think it’s important to bring as many eyes as possible to the academies,” Skenes said. “In my recruiting class at the Air Force Academy, I think I might have been the only one that sought out the Air Force Academy.
“Everybody else got recruited and kind of had to be convinced or explained to them what the Air Force Academy is and what it’s all about. Which tells me that people don’t know about it as much as they should.”
The Pirates haven’t made the playoffs since 2015 and haven’t won a postseason game since 2013. They were 1½ games out of a wild-card spot coming out of the break.
Skenes could be the player who gets Pittsburgh back to the postseason.
“Hopefully, going to win a lot of games. Go out there and keep executing the kind of way I have been and keep learning the league,” he said. “Just learn every single outing and keep putting us in positions to win.”
Skenes is the first player to make the All-Star Game the season after he was drafted. He has revitalized baseball in Pittsburgh and is already one of the most important people in the sport.
“He gets it,” said Chris Sale, one of the pitchers Skenes spent time with while in Texas. “I like the way he’s handling everything. It’s good for the game.”
The Cubs fired Seiya Suzuki’s translator during the All-Star break, hoping they can improve the flow of information to the outfielder. The Red Sox made a similar move with Masataka Yoshida before the season. There are no set standards for interpreters for players from Japan or Taiwan. In some cases, it has been a friend of the player or somebody suggested by his agent . . . Bruce Bochy joined Tony La Russa as the only managers to win All-Star Games in both leagues . . . Heliot Ramos, a first-round draft pick in 2017, was the first homegrown Giants outfielder to make the All-Star team since Chili Davis in 1986. The 24-year-old Ramos hit .158 over 82 games from 2022-23 and hit one home run. He hit .298 before the break this season with 14 homers and 46 RBIs . . . The Players Association has well-founded concerns about the Athletics playing in Sacramento next season. Because both the Athletics and Triple A Sacramento River Cats will share the stadium for 156 games, the plan is to replace the grass field with artificial turf. With summer temperatures in Sacramento averaging 94 in July and 93 in August, that would make for sizzling field conditions, especially for day games. Commissioner Rob Manfred said the league and the union have agreed on an artificial surface that can be cooled. The league also adjusted the schedule to cut down on day games. The 2025 schedule has the Red Sox playing in Sacramento from Sept. 8-10, so perhaps they could catch a break from the heat . . . Jackie Bradley Jr. hit .389 with a 1.160 OPS in his first 36 games with the independent Long Island Ducks and took a 25-game hitting streak into the weekend. At 34, Bradley is an option for major league teams needing an outfielder . . . Happy birthday to Gary Waslewski, who is 83. The Connecticut native joined the Red Sox in 1964 via the minor league draft. He made his major league debut in 1967 and pitched twice in the World Series, allowing two earned runs over 8⅓ innings. Waslewski started Game 6 and left in the sixth inning with a 4-2 lead. He didn’t get the decision in what proved to be an 8-4 victory for the Sox. Waslewski was traded to the Cardinals after the 1968 season and went on to play for the Expos, Yankees, and Athletics before ending his playing career in 1974. His son, Dan, is regional director of operations at TPC Boston.
Peter Abraham can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @PeteAbe.
