With three of the league’s 30 teams having abandoned their grey away jerseys and alternates frequently worn on the road, will more clubs move on from a classic look?
It’s far from a secret that baseball is a sport with deeply rooted traditions that have divided fans over the years as Major League Baseball has moved to modernize the game and change certain longstanding rules and practices.
The traditional baseball fan in me has had to come to terms with this myself in recent years. I still think it’s incredibly ridiculous that an automatic runner is placed on second base in extra innings (this isn’t teeball), while I also lament the removal of pitchers hitting in the National League, which made for some greatly entertaining strategy.
Ultimately, with declining offense and rising game times emerging as issues, the league viewed changes to certain longstanding rules as a necessity for the long-term health of the game.
It hasn’t been all bad either, even in my eyes. The removal of the defensive shift and addition of larger bases has aided in bringing some more action back to the sport, while the addition of the pitch clock and ABS challenges have been welcome quality of life changes.
Yet that tradition expands far beyond rules, to something even the most casual spectator can observe and form an opinion on – the uniforms.
Dating back to over a century ago, precedent was established for what we still mostly see in MLB uniforms today – white uniforms are predominantly worn at home, while grey uniforms are typically worn for away games.
This practice was likely adopted to reduce the need for extra laundry during road trips, with dirt stains being a bit tougher to see on the darker uniform surface. While this obviously is no longer a concern to teams, it marked the beginning of one of baseball’s more distinct traditions.
While the NBA offers a free-for-all each night in jersey choices whereas the NFL and NHL typically see teams wear colored jerseys at home and white jerseys on the road, MLB has long been different in that regard.
Despite 27 of the league’s 30 teams still wearing grey jerseys as of the 2026 season, there’s at least some reason to believe MLB teams are slowly shifting away from one of the sport’s longstanding traditions.
Alternate uniforms themselves are certainly nothing new – with third jerseys gaining prevalence in the 1990’s and remaining very common to this day, as only the New York Yankees do not currently wear one.
During this time, several clubs around the league began to favor solid-colored alternate jerseys for many road games while still using the same jerseys for home games with white pants, creating new possibilities for uniform customization that quickly gained prevalence.
While teams simply rotated between grey and colored jerseys for away games over the course of the next two decades, Nike’s takeover of MLB uniforms has presented a new, totally unnecessary challenge to teams – limiting each club to four primary uniforms and one special “City Connect” uniform.
Taking effect ahead of the 2023 season, two clubs opted to simply do away with their grey jerseys entirely in favor of other alternates – with the Tampa Bay Rays and Seattle Mariners both having not worn grey jerseys since the 2022 season.
The two teams’ omission of a grey jersey is in addition to that of the San Diego Padres, who rotate between a pinstriped tan uniform and a solid-colored brown jersey for road games.
Both teams are in a more unique position than most other clubs when it comes to their uniform layout, as Tampa Bay and Seattle both have alternate home uniforms that serve as throwback jerseys. With two alternate colored jerseys available for both clubs, the Mariners and Rays have simply rotated between them for road games.
Although other teams have opted to keep their grey jerseys as Nike’s 4+1 rule hasn’t forced their hand like it did with Tampa Bay and Seattle, there’s reason to believe that fans have an appetite for a different look.
This has become especially prevalent in the 2020’s, with several clubs introducing powder blue uniforms that are inspired by past away jerseys worn by many teams during the 1970’s, when powder blue had replaced grey as a road jersey color for many teams.
Clubs such as the Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs, Minnesota Twins, Toronto Blue Jays, Texas Rangers, St. Louis Cardinals, Kansas City Royals and Milwaukee Brewers have all introduced retro-inspired powder blue uniforms in recent years, with several of the teams wearing the jerseys for both home and away games.
Perhaps the most notable development in this regard however is that of the clubs that have been the longest holdouts when it comes to this specific tradition. The Detroit Tigers introduced a navy blue jersey for road games just this year, with the Los Angeles Dodgers have implemented a solid Dodger blue road jersey into the mix – a permanent add after previously wearing similarly-colored “Los Dodgers” uniforms in previous years.
Then there’s the New York Yankees, who are notorious for their adherence to tradition, being MLB’s only team to still omit numbers on both their home and away jerseys. The Yankees are the only team without an alternate jersey and are just one of two teams without a City Connect jersey, joining the nomadic Athletics in the latter category.
Change could be on the horizon in this regard however, with several outlets reporting that Yankees players are in favor of wearing their navy blue batting pratice tops for select road games, which would make them the final club to add a third jersey. The Yankees’ participation in past Players’ Weekend promotions marked the only deviations from tradition for the club, with the team never adding a permanent alternate uniform.
The Yankees wearing something other than pinstripes or grey away jerseys would feel sacreligious to many fans, but can also serve as a breakthrough towards a new era of MLB uniforms – where perhaps teams feel more empowered to stay colorful on the road.
For many clubs, this has already been standard practice for years. While I believe that the Chicago Cubs’ away jerseys are among the stronger ones in MLB, the team has frequently opted for their blue tops with the alternate “Cubby Bear” logo – forever immortalized as the jerseys worn on the road in Cleveland for their Game 7 win of the 2016 World Series.
Though this is purely anecdotal, it’s also worth noting that grey jerseys are simply not as easily available or commonly seen in the stands at games as their home and alternate counterparts – with many fans simply seeking out and preferring their team’s home and colored jerseys.
In an increasingly profit-driven, corporatized society, it’s worth wondering if this is something MLB forces their hand on, especially with a likely prolonged labor battle between the league and the MLB Players’ Association looming after the 2026 season. While a fight over a potential salary cap is expected to be the primary point of contention, I wouldn’t rule out the league searching for new ways to make more money via existing channels.
Still, baseball’s fanbase is one that is both overall older and more concerned with the tradition of the sport than that of other major North American professional sports. Yet considering that myself and millions of other fans haven’t turned away after the addition of the ghost runner in extra innings and the designated hitter in the National League, I don’t think doing away with grey jerseys would be a breaking point for very many fans.
I don’t even know how I personally feel about it – I generally prefer solid-colored alternates to grey jerseys and love their versatility to be worn for both home and away games, but it would certainly feel strange if we had a league where none of the league’s teams wore grey jerseys on the road.
It’s hard to see a time in the near future where this drastic change would be made, let alone spearheaded by the league – but the New York Yankees of all teams adding a third jersey could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back when it comes to other clubs evaluating their uniforms under the current rules.
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