FORT MYERS, Fla. — Whether it’s sports, politics or just about any other subject, it seems like no one can agree on anything these days, especially among a group as diverse as the baseball community.
But one thing seemingly everyone can agree on? MLB’s new uniforms are a disaster.
This season every MLB club is receiving new uniforms designed by Nike and manufactured by Fanatics, which the league touts as being more lightweight and breathable than previous iterations. A press release announcing the “Vapor Premier” jerseys was sent out at the start of spring training accompanied by endorsements from prominent players like Ronald Acuña Jr. and Nolan Arenado, but since camp opened the reception has been broadly negative.
The chief complaints are the jerseys look cheap and feel papery, the colors are off and the names on the back are too small. Players also say the new pants don’t fit like they should, aren’t customizable in the way they were previously and in some cases are see-through. There also appears to be a league-wide pant shortage, which has forced some clubs to dig up and re-use old pants from last season.
While players tend to be resistant to change in general, the outcry has been so forceful and widespread that the players union has gotten involved. MLBPA executive director Tony Clark told The Athletic this week that he’s frustrated by MLB’s uniform rollout and has been in contact with the necessary parties to try and get things sorted out.
Nick Pivetta, the Red Sox union representative, said no Red Sox players have specifically come to him to complain but there has been grumbling in general. While he personally isn’t one to complain about a big league uniform, he acknowledged he has gripes as well.
“The pants are super see-through. It’s not professional,” Pivetta said. “I don’t know, I’m not going to complain too much, it’s a big league uniform, but there are little tiny details that used to be better and it seems like they just changed a couple things.”
As Pivetta spoke, fellow pitcher Lucas Giolito approached, and when asked for his thoughts he immediately pointed out the see-though pants as well. Pivetta then pulled his own pair out of the locker and put his hand inside.
“I can see my hand straight through this,” he said. “That’s probably a big problem if I’m sweating and I’m on TV.”
Beyond all of the issues with the uniforms themselves, players have also been vexed by the inadequate supply, which Pivetta said has placed undue stress on the clubhouse staff who are trying to accommodate each player’s needs on top of the litany of other things they already have on their plate.
Though complaints appear to be widespread, not everyone in the Red Sox clubhouse is necessarily up in arms. Manager Alex Cora downplayed the issue when asked on Friday, and Garrett Whitlock said after his first outing wearing the new uniform on Saturday that he didn’t feel any difference.
“I know guys are like, ‘oh it feels so much different’ but I can’t tell,” Whitlock said. “My wife will tell you I have zero fashion so it doesn’t affect me at all.”
In their first statements since the controversy erupted, MLB and Nike both said they are working to address players’ concerns. The pants problem is both urgent and comparatively fixable, so presumably some kind of resolution could be reached by Opening Day, but other issues related to the uniform’s design elements probably can’t be changed until next offseason, both for logistical and economic reasons.
Still, the players are hopeful everything can get worked out so this all can blow over.
“We’ll just see how it goes,” Pivetta said. “Maybe they’ll change it halfway through the year, but I doubt that will happen.”
Sirota next man up
New England isn’t known for being a hotbed of elite baseball talent, but over the past few years the region has produced some remarkably talented young prospects.
In 2021, it was Sal Frelick, the Lexington native and Boston College standout who went No. 15 overall to Milwaukee and has already reached the majors. The following year, Methuen’s Dom Keegan was taken in the third round by Tampa Bay after a stellar college career at Vanderbilt, and he’s quickly risen through the ranks as one of the organization’s top prospects.
Then last year, Rowley’s Thomas White, long viewed as the best left-hander in his high school class, was taken No. 35 overall by Miami out of Phillips Andover and immediately became that organization’s No. 2 prospect.
Now Northeastern University’s Mike Sirota is on deck.
Originally from Broad Channel, N.Y., Sirota was a 16th-round pick by the Dodgers out of the Frederick Gunn School in Connecticut in 2021, but instead opted to attend Northeastern, where he’s blossomed into one of the top college players in the country.
Now a junior, Sirota led Northeastern onto the field in Friday’s annual spring training exhibition against the Red Sox, and this summer he’s expected to be the latest star with local ties taken in the first round of the MLB Draft.
“When you take a kid like Mike from New York, we’ve adopted him, he’s one of us now as a northeastern guy, a New Englander and someone I think New England baseball can be proud of,” said Northeastern coach Mike Glavine, whose program has produced numerous professionals in recent years, including North Andover’s Sebastian Keane and Walpole’s Cam Schlittler.
“It’s a blessing for me,” Sirota said. “I feel like in high school I didn’t get much attention and I felt a little overlooked, so it’s definitely a blessing to have that kind of attention now.”
A 6-foot-3 outfielder, Sirota ranks as the No. 5 prospect in the 2024 MLB Draft according to Baseball America and ranks No. 11 according to MLB Pipeline. Both outlets describe the 20-year-old as a well-rounded talent who projects as a future big league center fielder.
“Lean, athletic and strong, Sirota has an intriguing collection of tools,” writes MLB Pipeline. “He has plus bat speed with excellent bat-to-ball skills from the right side of the plate. There’s raw power for him to tap into — he had 18 homers in his sophomore season — and when combined with his plus speed, he has 20-20 potential at the highest level.”
Sirota has posted monster numbers his first two years at Northeastern and has also turned heads in the Cape Cod League. Last season he set a new Northeastern single-season program record with 73 runs scored while batting .346 with 18 home runs, 54 RBI, 19 stolen bases, an 1.149 OPS and nearly as many walks (44) as strikeouts (49). In two seasons on the Cape he’s batted .312 with a .942 OPS, demonstrating an ability to do damage against high velocity while maintaining a disciplined approach at the plate.
“I hate saying stuff like this but he does project as a five-tool guy, he can do everything well,” Glavine said. “He can run, he can throw, he can hit, he has some power. His swing decisions I think are as good as anybody in college baseball, there’s no doubt about that.”
Though Sirota has made his mark in Boston, the New York Yankees run in his blood. His great uncle was the late Hall of Famer Whitey Ford, with whom he shared a close bond up until the legendary left-hander’s passing in 2020.
“I used to go over to his house all the time because he had a diving board so when I was little I used to love going over there and just jumping in the pool,” Sirota said. “I was young before he passed so I didn’t get to talk too much in depth about things but him and my mom would talk a lot and they had a really good relationship.”
Ford would no doubt be proud of the player his grand nephew has become, but could Sirota ultimately follow in his footsteps and become part of the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry himself? It’s not crazy to imagine. The Red Sox pick at No. 12 overall this July, right around when he’s expected to be taken.
While the club has recently emphasized middle infielders in the draft and could pivot to pitching this summer, the Red Sox would surely consider a potential five-tool outfielder if he slid out of the top 10.
Either way, Sirota will likely become the first Northeastern player drafted in the first round since ex-Red Sox reliever Adam Ottavino in 2006, and he also has a chance to become the program’s highest drafted player since Haverhill’s Carlos Peña went No. 10 overall in 1998.
And when that happens, he’ll join a growing group of northeast ballplayers who have shown you don’t need to live in a warm weather climate to become one of the best of the best.
Why is free agency dragging on?
There was a time when MLB free agency was among the most exciting times on the sports calendar. Every winter fans could count on big moves reshaping the sport by Christmas, with the Winter Meetings usually serving as ground zero for the biggest bombshells.
But lately it’s felt like nobody’s in any hurry to crank up the Hot Stove.
Over the past five or six years we’ve seen free agency drag deeper and deeper into the offseason, with many of the best players available often not signing until well after spring training begins.
The Red Sox famously didn’t sign J.D. Martinez until late February of 2018, Bryce Harper and Manny Machado didn’t sign their historic $300-plus million deals with Philadelphia and San Diego until after camp opened, and thanks in large part to the lockout there were numerous players in 2022 who didn’t sign until barely two weeks before Opening Day, Trevor Story among them.
Now it’s almost March and four of this year’s top free agents remain unsigned.
As of this writing, two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell, World Series champion Jordan Montgomery, former MVP and reigning Comeback Player of the Year Cody Bellinger and four-time Gold Glove winner Matt Chapman are all still available, and it’s not clear when any will find their new team. All four are represented by agent Scott Boras, who has historically held a hard line to get his clients the most money possible, and so far none of their obvious suitors have been willing to meet his price.
Eventually one side or the other is going to blink, but who knows how long that could take.
This whole dynamic stands in stark contrast to other leagues like the NBA, where big news usually breaks the moment free agency officially opens, and often even before. The fast pace helps drum up excitement and drives interest in those leagues, whereas in baseball the predominant feeling across the league is frustration.
The Red Sox may be taking the most heat for their inaction, but they’re hardly the only club that seems strangely content with their roster while impact players are still there for the taking.
Why does this keep happening? There are a lot of factors but a big one is unlike the NBA or NFL, MLB does not have a salary cap, so theoretically there’s no limit to what a club could spend and no limit to what kind of deal a player can land. There’s no “supermax” representing a mutually understood best deal available, so instead both sides have a strong incentive to push for as much (or as little) as possible.
There also isn’t any kind of signing deadline, so both sides can (and do) try to wait the other out until someone gets desperate.
Both a salary cap or a signing deadline would be nonstarters for the players union, so nobody should plan on seeing either instituted anytime soon, but hopefully everyone can agree the current status quo isn’t good for the game.
Cora correctly described this offseason as “boring” when camp opened earlier this month, and unless you’re a Dodgers, Yankees or maybe a Royals fan there hasn’t really been that much to get excited over.
Perhaps there’s a more creative solution out there, like an offseason trade deadline or a holiday dead period. Those could create more urgency and prompt more activity without restricting free agency, but as long as both sides have a stronger incentive to wait than to strike a deal, we’re going to continue seeing free agency drag deep into the spring.