Report: MLB teams may not have alternate uniforms in time for season

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As if the rollout of the new Nike Vapor Premier jerseys could get any worse, it sounds like teams may be limited in what uniforms they have at their disposal to open the 2024 regular season.

Derrick Goold of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported over the weekend that “as teams shift to the new Nike-designed, Fanatics-manufactured jerseys, they are not certain if alternate jerseys will be available on time for the start of the season.”

For the Phillies, that would mean they would be without their two home alternate uniforms — the cream alternates worn for day games played at Citizens Bank Park and the powder blue throwbacks the team sports on Thursdays.

As Phillies Nation first reported, the team’s red alternate tops have been shelved for 2024, both as Spring Training jerseys and for “getaway days” on the road during the regular season. They fell victim to Nike’s “4+1” rule, with the Phillies having to eliminate one of the five jerseys they had in their rotation.

The Phillies will be getting a new fifth jersey in 2024, as they are one of nine teams that will get City Connect jerseys this season, along with the Detroit Tigers, Cleveland Guardians, St. Louis Cardinals, Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Mets, Minnesota Twins, Tampa Bay Rays and Toronto Blue Jays.

While the jerseys seemingly leaked online earlier this month, the Phillies have not yet publicly announced a date for when their full City Connect uniforms will be unveiled. It’s unclear if these production delays will affect the rollout, or if Nike and Fanatics are prioritizing the City Connect uniforms over other alternate threads.

If the Phillies don’t have their creams, powder blue and City Connect jerseys at their disposal to open the season, it would leave them to wear their red pinstripes for all home games, and grays for all road games. With the elimination of the red tops, the Phillies will probably be wearing their gray uniforms for all 81 road games this season anyway.

Regardless of what time of day the game is at, the Phillies always wear their red pinstripes for their home opener, so you can expect those uniforms when they welcome the Atlanta Braves to Citizens Bank Park for Opening Day on Thursday, March 28. But the 4:05 p.m. ET start time on Saturday against the Braves and the 1:35 p.m. ET start time on Sunday against Atlanta would normally be games that the Phillies would wear their cream alternates for. Instead, the opening series may be all pinstripes as the Phillies wait for their alternate uniforms to come in.

This actually happened back in 2022, as the Phillies didn’t wear their cream or powder blue alternates for the first few weeks of the regular season. But at that time, there were still serious supply-chain issues stemming for the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. It’s unclear what the excuse would be this time around, other than incompetence from the jersey manufacturer.

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