Could MLB return to individual team All-Star Game jerseys?

With the 2024 MLB All-Star Game upon us, it’s interesting to note that the league is already looking ahead towards future editions of the famous game. Should the proposed move come off it will bring back a practice that we’ve also previously seen in the NBA.

MLB contemplating individual team jerseys for future All-Star games

According to reports this week, MLB is said to be considering a change for future All-Star Games that will almost certainly be popular among fans and players alike. With this year’s edition of the game set to be played on Tuesday night at the Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred held a Q&A with writers where he disclosed that “there will be conversations” about the potential return of individual team jerseys at the All-Star Game. “I’m aware of the sentiment,” Manfred said, according to Evan P. Grant of The Dallas Morning News.

If you didn’t know, between 1997 and 2017, MLB players wore their branded All-Star jerseys during the Home Run Derby and All-Star Workout Day. Where the All-Star Game itself is concerned, players would then switch to regular team uniforms. Then came ‘18 and ‘19, where the branded jerseys were only seen during the Workout Day, with regular team jerseys worn during the Derby and Midsummer Classic. As any baseball fan knows, things changed permanently in 2021. On the back of a 10-year, $1 billion deal that was secured by Nike in 2019 to become MLB’s official uniform supplier, a new road was paved. Indeed, from that year forward Nike has been designing and manufacturing All-Star Game jerseys along with those worn during the Derby. It’s a change that has not been entirely well received, something that Manfred himself tried to defend in 2022, saying “I never thought that a baseball team wearing different jerseys in a game was a particularly appealing look for us.”

In light of that, it’s interesting to note the change in the commissioner’s stance. What’s more is that there appears to be support for the move across the board. Most recently, we saw Philadelphia Phillies first baseman and two-time National League MVP Bryce Harper, speaking about the idea of enjoying the All-Star Game with team jerseys when he was a child. “If we could change back to that,” Harper said on Monday, “I think it would be really cool.” In case you’re wondering, the 2024 MLB All-Star Game will begin at 8:00 p.m. ET, with Pittsburgh Pirates ace rookie Paul Skenes (6-0, 1.90 ERA) taking the mound for the NL against the Baltimore Orioles’ right-hander Corbin Burnes (9-4, 2.43 ERA) for the American League.