Most years, MLB spring training allows fans to learn more about young players and the superstars of tomorrow. This year, everyone is talking about pants.
This year’s uniforms — manufactured by Fanatics and designed by Nike — have garnered dismal reviews. Fans and players have noted that the lettering on the jerseys is smaller than normal while the light-colored pants are almost see-through.
“Universal concern is the pant,” MLBPA executive director Tony Clark told ESPN. “A lot of the rhetoric is confirmation that the pants are see-through. It’s been an ongoing conversation where each day has yielded something new that doesn’t seem to make as much sense as you would like it.”
At spring training, team announcers have voiced their concerns about the redesigned jerseys.
“As a fan — as an observer — what I noticed immediately is that the names and the numbers have shrunk to Lilliputian in size,” play-by-play announcer Gary Cohen said during a Mets’ broadcast. “It seems as though what happened is, in an effort to make the jerseys more athletic … in trying to reduce the weight, they changed the size of the lettering.”
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said the new jerseys are different because they are “performance wear.” Players donned the new material during last year’s All-Star Game and had positive feedback, he said.
“We always pay attention to what people are saying about any new initiative. In baseball, there’s going to be some negative feedback,” Manfred said during a press conference earlier this month. “[The jerseys] are going to be different, but they have been tested more extensively than any jersey in any sport.”
The negative feedback has been swift and satirical, as fans took to social media to tear apart the new pants.
“I did an experiment and discovered that my toilet paper is, in fact, less transparent than the new MLB uniform pants,” one user said on X.
“Whenever I’m nervous public speaking I just pretend people in the audience are wearing fanatics baseball pants,” another commenter wrote.
MLB officials have not said whether they will make any changes to the uniforms before the regular season begins in March. In the meantime, baseball fans will continue to poke fun at the fashion faux pas.
“Can only hope the next step is people treating the pants as they did the baseball itself,” Emma Bacellieri wrote, referring to MLB’s investigation into baseballs in the 2010s. “Collecting pants from different seasons to determine the precise changes, producing graphs of pant-to-pant fabric thickness year-to-year, things of that nature.”
• Liam Griffin can be reached at lgriffin@washingtontimes.com.
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