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Have the Phillies worn their red jerseys for the final time?

DUNEDIN, FL – MARCH 27: Philadelphia Phillies Bryce Harper (3) and Nick Castellanos (8) look out from the dugout as the Phillies bat during the spring training game between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Toronto Blue Jays on March 27, 2022, at the Dunedin Stadium in Dunedin, FL. (Photo by Cliff Welch/Icon Sportswire)

When the Philadelphia Phillies defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks 6-1 in Game 5 of the NLDS, it proved to be their final win of the 2023 season. It may also be the final time that you see the Phillies in their polarizing red alternate tops.

While there isn’t yet a date set for when they will be introduced, the Phillies will finally get a City Connect uniform in 2024. Currently, they are one of 10 teams that doesn’t yet have one. But the addition of a City Connect uniform will have a ripple effect on the rest of the Phillies uniform rotation.

Nike — who became the official uniform provider of Major League Baseball in 2020 — has instituted a “4+1” uniform rule. That essentially means you can have four uniforms in your rotation, and a fifth if it’s a City Connect uniform.

To get in compliance, the Seattle Mariners, for example, eliminated their road gray uniforms prior to adding a City Connect uniform in 2023. The Mariners have one of the league’s few good looking navy blue uniforms, which became their primary road threads this past season. Seattle also wore their “Northwest Green” as a road alternate, so they could make things work without the typical road grays.

The Phillies have five uniforms in their rotation already, meaning one will have to be eliminated to comply with the 4+1 rule. Home pinstripes aren’t going anywhere. The team’s cream and powder blue alternates are probably the two most popular among fans and players, so it’s hard to imagine them not returning in 2024. That leaves either gray or red. And given that the red tops have been worn fairly infrequently and have quite a few detractors, one would think they will be on the chopping block. That’s not something we’re reporting is for sure the case, but it’s not hard to see what direction the wind is blowing.

Prior to the 2016 season, the Phillies introduced the red tops as an alternate to be worn for weekday home games at Citizens Bank Park. They lasted just two years in that role, before being shelved and not worn during the regular season from 2018-2020. But in June of 2021, the red tops returned for “getaway days,” being worn for the final game of most road series. Phillies players, most notable Bryce Harper, didn’t like exclusively wearing gray on the road.

While there will be some who suggest that the Phillies make the red tops their permanent road uniforms and retire gray, that doesn’t seem likely. There were various times in 2023 where the Phillies didn’t wear their red tops for getaway days because it clashed with what the opposing team was wearing, and the home team typically gets first say on what the uniform matchup will look like.

The reality is that there are a ton of teams in the National League alone — the Cincinnati Reds, St. Louis Cardinals, Washington Nationals, Arizona Diamondbacks and Atlanta Braves — that use some form or red as their primary color or have a red alternate they regularly wear. There are some times where the Phillies simply cannot wear red, and that makes the idea of turning a red top into your primary road uniform probably a non-starter. So our bet is that the red alternates have been worn for the final time in the regular season, or at least for a while.

These red tops have also been the Phillies Spring Training jerseys since being introduced in 2016. It’s possible the Phillies will have a different look in Grapefruit League play in 2024, assuming the red jerseys are indeed the one picked to be eliminated. Nike didn’t produce the popular green St. Patrick’s Day uniforms for the Phillies last year, so it appears the 4+1 rule may also apply to Spring Training. In that case, the Phillies would have to pick one of their four current uniforms — perhaps the red pinstripes — to wear in Spring Training as well.