Washington Nationals Unveil New Pullover and Road Jerseys

Good morning, everyone. Paul had quite the scoops on a bunch of new MLB uniforms for the 2024 season this past week, but teams haven’t finished unveiling new looks. Yesterday, Paul noted the Marlins will have two new jerseys (I’ll have a separate post on those later, as they were unveiled late yesterday at the Marlins Annual Fan Fest). But that’s not all.

Yesterday afternoon, with no advance notice, the Washington Nationals unveiled two new jerseys which will be worn for the 2024 season: a white pullover (!) and a new road gray jersey. The white jersey will serve as an “alternate” while the new gray jersey replaces the script Washington they have worn for the past several seasons.

New Alternate Pullover

We recently saw the Angels were planning on wearing a throwback pullover uniform, and this new alternate for the Nats is in the same template — giving us our first non-MLB Style Guide look at the new pullover. You’ll note the collar is in the “wishbone” style on both.

The Nationals’ new alternate jersey is the club’s first pullover and includes the vintage Capitol W logo on the jersey for the first time.

Here are some additional views:

Here’s a closeup of the sleeve patch:

As you can see, the new wishbone collar features red, white and blue piping. The jersey also has navy blue raglan sleeves, and a thinner red/white/blue piping on the sleeve ends. The back of the jersey features a red NOB, outlined in navy, in a radial arch. Numbers are similarly red outlined in navy.

The team was kind enough to provide a handy-dandy graphic depicting the new elements:

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New Road Jersey

As noted above, the new gray jersey will replace the previous jersey which featured “Washington” in red script. This jersey is rendered in the traditional button-front style (and Nike’s new template). Like the new alternate, this jersey will feature red/white/blue piping around the collar, as well as the sleeve hems. Previously, the road jersey had red/blue/red piping around the collar and sleeve ends.

The team has introduced a new font, and “WASHINGTON” is now rendered in capital block letters, which are navy blue, surrounded by a white and red outline. Front numbers remain red with a navy outline. The sleeve patch remains the same Washington Nationals roundel.

Here are some additional views:

The back of the new roadie has NOB in blue with a red outline (with the new radial arch), and numbers are rendered in red with a blue outline.

This will be the third iteration of a road jersey for the Nats: the 2005-2008 beveled, Todd Radom design, and the more recent red script (also designed by Todd).

The new road jersey is somewhat reminiscent of the “Washington Stars” powder-blue road uniform that had been proposed for a possible Padres-to-DC move that never happened.

I had asked Paul if he could acquire the MLB Style Guide sheets for these new uniforms, but after the extensive week of MLB uni-exclusives, he thought it best to give the source a rest. I was hoping to see what pants the team would be pairing with the new alternate and road jerseys, since the piping has changed. The team did not provide a view of the pants with this unveiling, but they’ve indicated the road pants piping will be changed to match that on the jersey. It’s quite possible the team will also create a new set of white pants to match the r/w/b piping on the new alternate jersey as well.

One more thing of note: last season the Nationals had two alternate jerseys: a red jersey and a blue jersey. They also have their City Connect uniforms. If the team is to fall under the “4 + 1” (four jerseys plus CC) restriction, either the red or blue alternate jersey will likely need to be retired. The team has given no indication as to which one will be scrapped Per the WaPo, the red jersey is being retired and the blue alt will remain. Additionally, the team has given no indication how any of the other jerseys will change — if at all — under the new Nike template.

Fortunately, the Nationals are one of several teams that do not have uniform ads on the sleeve, so it was good to see an unveiling that doesn’t feature gratuitously staged photos prominently displaying an ad. How long the team will remain ad-free is unknown.

As always, I will need to see the jerseys on the diamond and in action in order to have a fully informed opinion, but I’ll be very interested to see the new pullover. Aside from throwbacks, MLB hasn’t seen pullovers as standard uniforms in decades. The new road gray isn’t all that different from the previous iteration, with the exception of the new block “WASHINGTON.” I wasn’t overly fond of the previous red script, but this new look feels like a bit of a wash. I’m also interested to see how they pair with the pants, which will have new piping in the r/w/b style of the jersey.