The New York Yankees‘ reign as the only club to never have an alternate uniform is over.

Well, kinda.

Prior to the 2026 season, the Yankees changed the official designation of their longtime “road Spring Training jersey,” that navy blue one that reads “NEW YORK” across the chest in grey, from “SPRING TRAINING ROAD UNIFORM” to “ALTERNATE ROAD UNIFORM.”

So as it stands, yes, the Yankees do currently have an alternate uniform, and they’ve had one since the start of this season; they’ve just never worn it in a regular season game, or even acknowledged it exists as such. Probably to avoid the sort of reaction you’d all expect when it comes to any change associated with baseball’s most visually traditional team.

This morning, however, The Athletic reported that Yankees players pitched the idea of wearing an alternate jersey:

Players suggested the team during occasional road games wear its navy batting practice jerseys, which feature “New York” across the chest in gray letters and numbers with white trim and the Starr Insurance sleeve patch. The players did not propose any changes to the home uniforms or to the regular road jerseys. The Yankees have only two official jerseys: white with blue pinstripes at home and gray on the road.

And later on…

The Yankees have never had an official alternate jersey. Every other MLB team has an alternate. The Los Angeles Dodgers recently bucked tradition and added a blue alternate road uniform to their regular gray uniform

So I’m not sure if the Yankees have misled The Athletic here, or the outlet simply didn’t know this had already happened (it really wouldn’t be fair to pick on them for not knowing, the change has only ever been visible within the league’s official style guide), but I do think it’s kinda silly the Yankees haven’t just said “oh, we already have an alternate uniform, we just don’t know when we’ll wear it.”

The Yankees new road alternate uniform has already been worn during Spring Training for many years

The Yankees aren’t quite the totally pure, uniform fuddy-duddies we all think them to be. They wear a corporate advertisement on their jersey sleeve, and they took part in the visual eyesore that was Players’ Weekend from 2017 through 2019. Still, the club refused to participate in both Nike’s City Connect promotion (the only team with a location in their name to do so) as well as the Turn Ahead the Clock series in 1999.

“Hey, the Yankees haven’t won a World Series since 2009, so maybe a little deviation from all that tradition wouldn’t be such a bad thing,” commented designer Todd Radom, author of the upcoming book The Ballpark and Beyond: An Illustrated Celebration of Baseball’s Rich History. “Besides, the contemplated navy blue alternates really represent a sensible brand extension, nothing radical or particularly un-Yankee like here.”

Todd’s not wrong here, of course, but I still don’t have to like the idea of turning on a Yankees game and seeing them wearing anything other than white or grey.

The New York Yankees Players’ Weekend uniforms in 2018 (left) and 2019 (right)

One important thing to remember, this jersey is designated road only; it is not intended to ever be worn in place of the much more classic and untouchable home whites/pinstripes. There is no name on the back, only the player’s number in the same grey/white colours as the wordmark across the front.

I suspect now that the cat’s been let out of the bag via this Athletic piece, we’ll see the Yankees wearing the navy blue tops on the road any day now, maybe even as soon as tonight at Boston. They’re currently on day two of a nine-game road trip that sees them visiting Boston, Houston, and Texas.

Earlier this season, both the Detroit Tigers and Los Angeles Dodgers began wearing coloured alternate jerseys regularly for the first time this century. Previously, the Tigers had only worn an alternate jersey once before – a navy blue jersey for a single game in 1995, and the Dodgers (who have had a grey alternate jersey for several years) wore a blue alternate for a week in 1999.