Go to the Olympics or suffer the consequences.In a May proposal to the union, Major League Baseball said it wants big leaguers to face an effective suspension longer than three weeks — a period that would last into the second half of the regular season — if they are chosen to participate in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles but skip out without an approved excuse.From as early as July 10, 2028, through Aug. 3, 2028, players who choose not to play in the Summer Games would be on the restricted list without pay or service time, per a copy of the proposal reviewed by The Athletic. Placement on the injury list would technically be an approved excuse, but with a wrinkle: such players would get pay and service time, but would not be able to return to regular-season action until after the same day, Aug. 3.Bruce Meyer, the head of the Players Association, on Tuesday called the league’s proposal “extreme.” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, meanwhile, said the proposal was made on the premise that the 2028 Summer Games are “a unique opportunity to market the sport with our very, very best players.”“It is a disruptive undertaking for us,” Manfred said Tuesday. “Put money to one side. You’re disrupting an entire season, and if we’re going to undertake that effort, we want our very best out there so that people see how great our game really is.”The league, the union and the 2028 Games’ organizers are in the early stages of negotiations over player participation in the 2028 Games, something that would be a novel development for the top baseball players in the world. Never before have big leaguers en masse gone to the summer games.But the parties have a bevy of issues to work out first, including whether Olympic participation is mandatory.To accommodate the baseball portion of the Olympics, which is to run from July 13-19, 2028, the usual midseason All-Star break would be extended. The first half of the regular season would wrap up July 9, and the All-Star Game is then set to be played Tuesday, July 11, likely in San Francisco. The regular season would resume July 21.In MLB’s proposal, a player who skips the Olympics and who was not “elected or selected to participate” in the All-Star Game would be on the restricted list from July 10 — the first day of the long midseason break — through Aug. 3, a 25-day span.And a player who “participates” in the All-Star Game on July 11 but then declines to go to the Olympics would be on the restricted list two fewer days, starting with the day after the All-Star Game, July 12.