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Why were the red jerseys ones eliminated by Phillies?

Aaron Nola models the now-retired red Phillies jerseys. (John Adams/Icon Sportswire)

Phillies Nation first reported back in December that the Phillies were shelving their red jerseys in 2024 — both as a “getaway day” top worn on the final day of road series during the regular season and even for Spring Training.

This wasn’t a decision made because the organization didn’t like red tops, but rather because Nike has a “4+1” rule, where they limit teams to four uniforms, and a fifth if it’s a City Connect. Ultimately, it doesn’t sound like there was much debate about which of the five from last year’s rotation would be axed in favor of the City Connect.

Shortly after the club unveiled their Philadelphia-flag inspired City Connect uniforms Friday morning, Phillies vice president of business affairs Howard Smith explained the decision to pick the red tops as the ones to remove from the rotation in 2024.

“They made us commit to a 4+1,” Smith said. “So if you didn’t want to do it, like the Yankees aren’t doing it, they don’t have five uniforms. But if you have five uniforms, you’re gonna go with four base uniforms and City Connect.

“So we had our white pinstripes, not getting rid of that. Powder blues, fan-favorite … creams, another fan-favorite … aways,” Smith said of the four uniforms the Phillies decided to keep. “The reds were our Spring Training uniform. We had only just started wearing them the last couple of years. I was disappointed, but we’re supporting MLB in the initiative, so it really wasn’t that big of a deal.”

That’s the perspective from a team official on the record. As someone that’s super into this stuff, here’s an educated guess of why the red tops were picked as the ones to scrap.

The Seattle Mariners, Atlanta Braves, Tampa Bay Rays and Texas Rangers have also had to retire uniforms to comply with this rule. Interestingly, Seattle and Tampa Bay both ditched their road grays and now wear navy blue as their primary color away from home. There were some who wanted to the Phillies to abandon gray, and just wear red full-time away from Citizens Bank Park.

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The problem with that idea is that there are so many teams, particularly in the National League, who have red as a primary or secondary color. There are times — like when playing in Cincinnati — when the Phillies just couldn’t wear red tops. Seattle has their “Northwest Green” jerseys they wear sometimes instead of navy blue for away games. The Phillies don’t really have another current jersey that could regularly be worn if, for whatever reason, red wasn’t practical for a game or an entire road series.

Of course, the powder blue jerseys the Phillies have worn as a throwback for Thursday home games since 2018 were originally worn as primary road uniforms from 1972-1988. So why couldn’t the Phillies wear those as a road uniform again, either on days where they couldn’t wear red or now in place of the reds? Technically, they could. But there are logistical complications.

With the red tops, the Phillies wore the same caps, pants, cleats and accessories (for the most part) as they do with the gray road jerseys. So the Phillies just needed to pack a second set of jerseys. For the powder blue uniforms to be worn regularly on the road, the Phillies would need to pack an entire second uniform set. There is so much that goes into getting a team ready for a road trip, that teams prefer to limit any additional complications. And a lot would have to go into wearing the powder blues on the road again. There’s no evidence that it will happen.

It is fair to point out that the Phillies now have four home uniforms, as opposed to just one on the road. The pinstripes are the primary home uniforms, the powder blues are worn for all Thursday games at Citizens Bank Park, the City Connects on Friday and the creams on all remaining afternoon games. By all accounts, gray will be worn for all 81 road games in 2024.

Remember, the red tops — in addition to being Spring Training jerseys — were initially worn as weekday afternoon game jerseys at Citizens Bank Park in 2016 and 2017 before being shelved. They only returned as a road alternate in June of 2021, when Phillies players wanted an option to mix things up for away games. Because of Nike’s 4+1 rule, that option is now gone.