City Connect Jerseys were designed to be honor all cities that are home to MLB teams and link the cities, the players, the teams, and the fans together. It is a unification project that justifies creating spectacular designs for new uniforms.
Many teams understood the assignment and knocked this project out of the park. Other teams, however, struck out looking. After hours of reviewing the jerseys, shifting opinions, and doing my research on certain connections that were made to specific cities, I have prepared my power rankings. The data has been gathered and carefully analyzed, so please enjoy these rankings, and feel free to let me know where I drastically over/underrated specific teams.
From First to Worst:
1. Cincinnati Reds
These are just pure gas. Electric color scheme with great execution on matching pants and complementary socks. Many people disliked it, but to me, this one is beautiful and looks great.
2. Colorado Rockies
This jersey has, perhaps, the best integration of the geographical connection the team has with their city. The Rocky Mountains are perfectly integrated into this jersey design, and it is impossible to say a negative thing about those green pants.
3. Chicago Cubs
I have heard from many that they did not like this jersey and that the design was boring. I could not disagree more as Wrigleyville is one of the coolest things in the entire sports world and it was a very cool idea to incorporate that into these uniforms.
4. Seattle Mariners
The retro colors. The black pants. THAT BLUE jersey. It all just pops. There are days where this is truly my #1 but after looking at all jerseys within a 3-minute timeframe, my gut tells me its #4. Either way, this may be the cleanest design of all the city connect variations.
5. Milwaukee Brewers
The Brew Crew is an awesome nickname for solid team in a great city. The vintage color scheme is very pleasing and the yellow piping on the collar and sleeves just brings it home.
6. Los Angeles Angels
Using Mike Trout as the face for these jerseys was not fair. It hooked me in immediately and rightfully so. The old-school font with a brighter shade of red than they normally wear make for an awesome jersey. The hat is truly great thanks to one of the better logos in the league commanding the attention on it, but the two-color attack gives it some bonus points.
7. Chicago White Sox
With a limited palette of colors in play, the White Sox absolutely nailed this uniform. The black jersey and pants with those pinstripes make for a unique look. Many criticize the decision to go with “Southside” instead of “Chicago”, but I honestly love it. A large part of this team’s identity is their location within their own city which is largely dominated by Cubs fans.
8. Miami Marlins
Very similar to the White Sox here in terms of execution. I cannot stand the Marlins, but I am big enough of a man to admit these jerseys are very nice. The powder blue and the red gel nicely as it gives a subtle “Miami Vice” feel.
9. New York Mets
Beautiful jerseys here as the dark grey pops with the black pinstripes. The incorporation of the purple piping, in honor of the 7 Line, is a very creative touch. The decision to go with “NYC” on the front is the only flaw. Like the White Sox, a large part of their identity is the location within the city, and that is Queens. The hat, however, fully makes up for this flaw. I love the incorporation of the bridge by the logo and the subway map under the bill of the hat. If the jersey said “Queens,” this would be top 5.
10. Tampa Bay Rays
This team has the best color scheme to work with in the entire league and they take full advantage of it with the OG “Devil Rays” logos. They do it again here and it nets them a top 10 spot. There is no doubt this would be #1 on the list if they went a different direction with the primary gray color, which takes away from the beautiful “Tampa Bay” logo on the front.
11. Texas Rangers
These jerseys are great. Plain and simple. The cream jersey and dark pants work very nicely together. The calligraphy logo elevates it for sure, but keeping the number up high on the front of the jersey is an interesting move that was done properly as well.
12. Detroit Tigers
These are cool-looking jerseys with a tasteful nod to the city’s nickname. It is a little too different from their normal jerseys. So much that it takes a minor hit on my rankings, but overall, they are in the better half of the city connect jerseys.
13. San Francisco Giants
This uniform caught some negative heat when it released, and I can see why. However, I disagree. Are these the most exciting jerseys ever made? No. But that orange and white faded “G” logo is top-notch and makes up for an otherwise empty canvas. The logo pops and is clearly the center of attention when looking at this uniform, but the orange hat complements it well up top.
14. Boston Red Sox
The color scheme here is not the best as that bright yellow just assaults your eyes, but I love the meaning behind it. The Boston Marathon is such an iconic event for all who reside in the city, so making that the driving force behind these designs is good enough of a reason for me to keep them in the upper half of these rankings.
15. Philadelphia Phillies
I hate this team more than any other team on the planet and I will never hide that. With that said, I will give them some credit here for putting out a solid jersey. The font commands all the attention and I am a sucker for a solid color fade. Blue and black are the actual opposites of red and white, but it is well-done nod to the city’s colors. I will admit that there may have been some bias at play when I decided to keep this jersey out of the top 10, but I think it is a positive step in the right direction of my personal growth to give them #15.
16. Atlanta Braves
This is another team that just makes my skin crawl, and that lineup sends shivers down my spine. With that being said, this is a nice jersey and nothing more. I appreciate the throwback design here and the blue sleeves/shoulders just add so much to the jersey.
17. Toronto Blue Jays
We are on the border of the almost-bottom tier of uniforms here. The skyline on the jersey is nice, but I feel they could have done more to sneak up higher on Matty Wheelz super verified list.
18. Kansas City Royals
The dark blue works well here with the white and baby blue on the sleeves. The logo is slick, but it is a mostly underwhelming jersey. The colors work well though and that should be respected.
19. Minnesota Twins
The logo is so small on the front and the rest of the jersey just does not tickle my fancy enough to warrant any more attention. For a team with a rich history of jerseys and logos, they dropped the ball. Context matters on this list.
20. St. Louis Cardinals
The Cardinals have one of the best logos in the game and that is the only saving grace on this jersey. The two cardinals sitting on the bat is the centerpiece, but the rest of it is just average. I do not have many words for that hat though. Just a bad looking hat.
21. Washington Nationals
I have an excuse to post a picture of Juan Soto! But in all seriousness, I have seen way too many positive opinions on this. I understand the cherry blossom association with DC, but it just does not look great on a baseball jersey.
22. Houston Astros
“Space City” is an interesting choice, but I think there was more potential left in the dust with these. Keeping the primary colors of the team works nicely but there is certainly room for improvement.
23. San Diego Padres
This is the end of the almost-bottom tier of jerseys. I very simply just do not like these jerseys. The colors are wild and vibrant which is not the issue, but it could have had a better delivery. Mixing the colors on the front logo was not the move.
24. Arizona Diamondbacks
We are in the bottom tier. These leave a lot to be desired considering the Diamondbacks had a perfect color scheme in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. If they went the route of the Tampa Bay Rays and brought back a tribute to those teams, they would be looking at a top 5 listing.
25. Baltimore Orioles
Very boring jerseys. No offense to Orioles fans (please know I absolutely love their current team and think that great things are in store for them), but these jerseys will never look great to me. The font is very basic, and this makes for a significant downgrade from their already-existing black jerseys.
26. Cleveland Guardians
These are worse than Baltimore but better than Pittsburgh. Let me be very clear that they are all very much in the same tier. Just very blah and boring. No disrespect.
27. Pittsburgh Pirates
Ugh. Another great color scheme laid to waste. If you are going to commit to a very yellow jersey, you need to make up for it big time in terms of font, logo and/or design. They just didn’t do that. It literally just says “PGH.” Like Baltimore, I truly love their normal everyday jerseys, so the significant downgrade them even more.
28. Los Angeles Dodgers
29. Los Angeles Dodgers…Again
The Dodgers deserve to be last on some kind of list. They are the first team to double down on the city connect jerseys and both are underwhelming enough to take the final two spots on my rankings. If I could be totally honest with you all, Pittsburgh is PROBABLY last place and these two Dodgers jerseys would follow Cleveland, but it was too hard to pass up on my opportunity to slam the Dodgers designs with the utmost level of disrespect.
There you have it…the completely accurate and indisputable rankings of city connect jerseys. We are supposed to get 8 more new ones this year and all the second iterations for each respective team.
Here are the teams:
- Arizona Diamondbacks
- Boston Red Sox
- Chicago White Sox
- Colorado Rockies
- Houston Astros
- Miami Marlins
- San Francisco Giants
- Washington Nationals
There is a very big opportunity here for the Diamondbacks, Astros, and Nationals to make up for previous mistakes. All three teams could pull back from older designs (*cough cough early 2000s cough cough*) that would help them skyrocket up this list.
The Red Sox and Giants both impressed me with their first City Connect uniforms, but I am excited to see what they can bring to the table for round 2. There is obviously a lot of potential here for such storied franchises with very rich histories.
The Rockies, White Sox and Marlins were all in my top 10 and with new jerseys coming out this year, I am terrified that we will see some big-time regression. I am most worried about the White Sox since they have a limited color scheme and truly maximized it’s potential already with the “Southside” one. The Marlins could integrate the old teal and black jerseys while the Rockies will always have purple and black to lean on. The latter two teams each have serious potential to add another jersey into my top 10 if they execute this properly.
Please also note that only two teams in the entire league are without a city connect jersey: The Athletics and the Yankees. The Yankees are all about tradition and will likely never participate and that’s a bummer. The Athletics will likely want to have a city/stadium to call home before they unveil a city connect jersey, but time will tell how this story progresses.
When it is all said and done, I absolutely love the City Connect program. Some see it as another cheap ploy to make us buy more jerseys and hats, while many others see it as a way to honor the cities that all these teams play in and most of their fans reside in. Both can be true, but it is mostly about team spirit and pride in your city.
As a lifelong fan of baseball and a certified jersey connoisseur, I am very excited for all future uniforms that will get released for this program
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