Today, Major League Baseball has to confront a major problem. No, it’s not that all of the biggest stars are taking performance-enhancing drugs, that already happened 20 years ago. No, it’s not a team winning the world series through an elaborate cheating scheme that involved banging on trash cans, that already happened seven years ago. No, it’s not almost all pitchers using foreign substances, namely Spider Tack, to get a better grip on the ball, that already happened two years ago. No, it’s not one of the game’s brightest stars being arrested for having a relationship with a minor, that already happened a few months ago. No, the real problem currently plagues MLB has to do with the new uniforms for the 2024 season.
Since 2020, MLB has given the job of designing the jerseys worn by players to Nike, who in turn work with Fanatics. Starting in 2024, the uniforms worn by players in MLB would be the Nike Vapor Premier, first revealed at the 2023 All-Star game in Seattle. At the time, players had largely positive opinions on the new jerseys. Pablo Lopez of the Minnesota Twins described them as being “very, very comfortable,” while Baltimore Orioles’ superstar Adley Rutschman called them a “great fit.” With such glowing reviews, you might wonder what the actual problem is. However, during spring training, it became apparent that there were many.
The first issues arose with the jerseys themselves. When players arrived for spring training in February, several criticized the new uniforms, meant to be worn on the field by professional athletes, for looking cheap. Names and numbers on the backs of jerseys were not centered, white shirts had now become an off-white color, and logos were printed on instead of being stitched. To top things off, in a move that is indicative of the lack of awareness shown by Fanatics, the company’s official support account on X responded to a post by Mariners infielder Michael Chavis that happened to include a picture of his jersey. Although Chavis did not directly criticize his jersey in his post, and clearly oblivious to the fact that he was a professional athlete as opposed to merely a fan, the Fanatics account responded by stating, “Hey there, it looks like we dropped the ball on this one. DM me so I can learn more.” Trea Turner summarized the thoughts of players when stating that “everyone hates [the new jersey].” And this was before MLB players encountered their new pants.
By far the biggest problem with the new uniforms are the pants. Firstly, instead of being tailored to each individual player, they were made in four separate sizes, leaving several players with a lack of well-fitting pants. The San Diego Padres, meanwhile, have to contend with the fact that their new pants have not arrived yet, forcing the team to use leftover pants from last year. However, the clearest problem with the pants for this year is that they are partially transparent. For instance, when players posed for pictures posted to social media with their shirts tucked in, the bottom of their shirts could be seen through their pants. The issues with transparent pants are rather obvious.
Now, there is a chance that these issues are resolved before Opening Day on March 20 for the Dodgers and Padres and March 28 for everyone else. However, given that the owner of Fanatics has argued that his company has been unfairly treated and that MLB commissioner Rob Manfred stated that the players would start liking their new uniforms after some time, this seems unlikely. Therefore, it seems that once again the baseball viewing experience will change dramatically from the year before, though instead of being the result of a pitch clock, it will be at the hands of cheap-looking jerseys and poorly-fitting, see-through pants.
