Brusdar Graterol misses Dodgers White House visit hosted by Trump

WASHINGTON (KTTV) - As the Los Angeles Dodgers made headlines across the globe for visiting President Donald Trump at the White House, one of the members of the Boys in Blue appeared to have missed the ceremony.

What we know:

Pitcher Brusdar Graterol took to social media to confirm he missed the White House visit. Graterol posted a story on Instagram with the caption, "in my brown house," with a smiling heart emoji. He was not in any of the photos shared by the Dodgers during the team's Presidential visit.

The Dodgers reliever did not specify the reasons for his absence and did not explicitly say politics played a factor in him missing the Washington, D.C. trip.

Not Pictured:

It's not considered unusual for players to miss the White House visit if they are nursing an injury. Freddie Freeman was not seen in any of the photos of the Trump visit as the World Series MVP is recovering from an ankle injury.

As of April 7, Freeman have not released a statement explaining why he skipped the White House visit.

Graterol is also recovering from an injury, as he was placed on 60-day IL in March, so there is a chance he may have skipped the Trump meet-and-greet event due to health reasons. There is also a chance that he wanted to spend time with his family instead of making the cross-country trip. However, neither of the aforementioned hypothetical reasons were explicitly mentioned in Graterol's social media pages.

Some of his injured teammates, on the other hand, attended the event, which included Michael Grove, Clayton Kershaw, Michael Kopech and Gavin Stone.

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As part of the tradition practiced by professional sports teams celebrating their championship victory at the White House, newcomers who were not on the roster during the title-winning season are not included in the visitation festivities. Dodger players on the 2025 roster who fall into this category include outfielder Michael Conforto, infielder Hyesong Kim (currently with the Dodgers' AAA affiliate in Oklahoma City), pitcher Tanner Scott, pitcher Rōki Sasaki, pitcher Blake Snell, and pitcher Kirby Yates.

Below is a photo showing members of the 2024 World Series championship team who attended the Apr. 7 White House visit:

WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 07: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks while hosting the 2024 World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers in the East Room of the White House on April 07, 2025 in Washington, DC. The Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the New York

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The backstory:

While it's not considered uncommon for championship athletes to turn down a White House invitation, there are occasional instances where players in the past have deliberately avoided meeting with the President.

Rasheed Wallace, who was a member of the 2004 Detroit Pistons, famously gave a blunt explanation as to why he skipped the White House visit when George W. Bush was President:

"I didn't vote for him," the NBA champion was quoted about 21 years ago.

Wallace and Bush would eventually meet face to face at an unrelated public event. The two dapped each other up in front of the cameras, drawing chuckles from the crowd.

Tim Thomas, a goaltender for the 2011 Stanley Cup-winning Boston Bruins, skipped the Presidential visit when it was hosted by Barack Obama.

Steve Kerr, a coach of the 2017 Golden State Warriors, wrote an op-ed piece for Sports Illustrated mocking Trump for rescinding Dub Nation's invite to the White House.

"It was like the president was trying to break up with us before we broke up with him," Kerr said in the piece. "Would we have gone? Probably not. The truth is we all struggled with the idea of spending time with a man who has offended us with his words and actions time and again."

This story was reported from Los Angeles.