Bryce Harper has also spoken about wanting to represent Team USA in the Olympics in 2028, should MLB players be allowed to participate. Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Imagn Images
Phillies star Bryce Harper will join Team USA for the World Baseball Classic this spring.
“Put the colors on my chest for the first time when I was 15,” Harper wrote in an Instagram post on Tuesday morning. “No other feeling like it.”
This will mark Harper’s first time competing in the World Baseball Classic. He was named to Team USA ahead of the 2023 competition, where he would have played alongside Phillies teammates J.T. Realmuto and Trea Turner, but was unable to compete due to Tommy John surgery rehab. He played for Team USA in 2008 (16U) and 2009 (18U), helping the U18 team win gold at the Pan-American U-18 Baseball Championship in Venezuela.
Harper has also spoken about wanting to represent Team USA in the Olympics in 2028, should MLB players be allowed to participate. Commissioner Rob Manfred told ESPN Radio on Oct. 27 that the league is exploring the possibility of wrapping an Olympic break into the traditional All-Star break, which would allow MLB players to be Olympians.
“The WBC is great and brings a lot of people together,” Harper said in June 2024, “but the Olympics is something you dream about playing in. If I have a chance to put my nation’s colors on and represent as I did at 18 and 16, then I would love it.”
Harper will play for Team USA after a down season by his standards, as he finished 11th in the National League in OPS (.844) and slashed .261/.357/.487 while spending some time on the injured list with a wrist injury in the first half of the season.
He will join teammate Kyle Schwarber on the Team USA WBC roster, which also features stars like Aaron Judge, Tarik Skubal, Paul Skenes and Cal Raleigh on manager Mark DeRosa’s team.