Over the years, MLB (along with New Era) has been steadily introducing new caps into each MLB’s closet, with not just a stream of holiday-themed caps, like the 2025 St. Paddy’s Day offerings, not to mention new gray BP caps and new Spring Training caps. There will surely be more new caps for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Armed Forces Weekend, Independence Day, and Players Weekend, to come.
But one of the more recent additions, one which has kind of fallen below the radar, is the introduction of new City Connect BP caps. Following their releases, the Astros, Nationals and Giants all were given not just official CC caps to be worn during games, but also new City Connect BP caps. I even featured a photo of the Giants BP cap during my review of the team’s new CC.
Here are the new BP caps for the three teams who’ve unveiled new CC uniforms in 2025:
ASTROS
NATIONALS
GIANTS
So we can almost assuredly expect new BP CC caps for the five remaining teams to receive new City Connect uniforms this season: Rockies, Diamondbacks, White Sox, Red Sox and Marlins. But what about the teams who already received CC uniforms in past seasons? Seems like MLB is now backfilling those teams with alternate (BP) CC caps as well.
Thanks to some excellent sleuthing from our own Susan Freeman, Gilad Jaffe and @THATBabyHuey, a number of new CC BP caps have begun appearing for sale. Let’s take a look…
New York Mets
Philadelphia Phillies
Kansas City Royals
Cleveland Guardians
Baltimore Orioles
Tampa Bay Rays
Toronto Blue Jays
Atlanta Braves
Los Angeles Dodgers
Pittsburgh Pirates
Texas Rangers
In addition to those, it also appears the following caps will be City Connect BP caps.
Milwaukee Brewers
San Diego Padres
Cincinnati Reds
Detroit Tigers
Minnesota Twins
And finally, there is also apparently a BP cap for the Cubs new City-Connect-that’s-not-being-called-a-City-Connect.
Obviously, introducing Batting Practice caps for City Connect uniforms is the very definition of a merch dump, although I suppose it’s possible that one or more of the above-mentioned teams might choose to wear the BP CC cap in-game. And honestly, some of these BP caps look better than the official CC caps. I especially prefer Tampa Bay’s skateboarding ray, the Mets “NYC” with purple brim, and the Minnesota Twins’ gold crown.
And assuming the Milwaukee Brewers BP CC cap is legit, it’s miles better than the MKE/414 CC the Crew currently wear with their CC uniforms.
I’m sure as the days progress, we’ll begin seeing more CC BP caps for teams not listed above.
In addition to the Mets, Rays and Twins, I would love to see the Giants use the new “Est 1958” logo in place of the new “SF” version.
What are your thoughts? Do CC uniforms even need batting practice caps? If you’re a cap buyer/collector, where would you rank these in terms of “must haves”? Which, if any, BP caps do you think are actually superior to the regular CC caps worn in game?
Fire away…
The Milwaukee one looks incorrect. Nike not New Era and different style cap.
That style cap exists for all the fitted ones we have found so far. Give it time. Plus the websites list it a CC batting cap.
no Mariners? huh
Not yet….
I can’t wait for the City Connect Alternate Throwback Anniversary Shagging Flies in the Outfield caps!
This made me laugh out loud…
The Braves City Connects were designed to honor Hank Aaron. The City Connects are similar to the unis Aaron wore in the early 1970’s, trimmed in royal blue. When those uniforms were first designed the sleeves were red, not royal. When they were shown to Aaron, y were heavy on the were shown to Aaron, he convinced the designers to change all the red to royal. Now the Braves City Connect BP caps are red – the color Hank disliked. Doesn’t seem right!
I like some of these better than the CC game caps. But also some of them much less – looking at you Phillies.
What’s another hat anyway? You look online and there are dozens and dozens of hats of a million colors and styles. Why not give fans another drop in the bucket?
I really like the Orioles BP cap! I think it’s an upgrade over the current one. My biggest complaint about the Orioles CC cap (and overall CC uniform) is that it’s too bland. The CC BP cap introduces more color!
They should start wearing it with their CCs during actual games IMMEDIATELY. In fact, I’m willing to wager that they do just that at some point this season. Bold prediction.
I’d love it if the Orioles did this! I much prefer the vibrant colors of the CC BP hat. However, I always assumed that the entire idea of a black and white hat was to make it more of an “athleisure” look that can pair with any outfit. I have no evidence to support this claim; it just feels like the lack of orange was intentionally done to sell more merch.
Do CC uniforms even need batting practice caps?
That is the wrong question Phil. The answer of course is no.
Is there a need for batting practice caps at all?
Again, of course not. All of these caps and uniforms are merchandise dumps.
I do sort of like the Mets one though. The purple is nice.
The Ray on the skateboard is rad. (The rest of the cap? The rest of the Rays CC costume? Nah.)
SkyRay is better. I missed the skateboard until it was pointed out in the article.
There are 386 Nationals caps available in the MLB store. None of them are the original 2005 – 2010 fitted road cap. This annoys me. Seeing the lastest BP cap here isn’t helping.
Thankfully, the original roadie sold at Nationals Park now. I final l y treated myself.
Who are the people who keep buying this stuff? I don’t get it. How many caps and jerseys does one person need? Guess the economy is stronger than I thought.
Collectors gonna collect.
::raises hand::
I’m a collectors but I don’t collect all hats of every collection. I’m definitely gonna pick up a handful of these, mainly because they’re designs I feel should’ve been part of their CCs to begin with. Love the Nats’ DC logo always, the O’s is an upgrade, the Brewers and Rays are fantastic change-ups (the Brewers ACTUAL CC hat is the worst of the 30, so this is an easy upgrade). Looking forward to seeing some other designs in the near future, but if they’re all duds, no big deal.
Please sir, I’ve had enough beatings. My morale has improved.
With the Mets It’s more interesting that there a blue and Orange variation already and it looks better
link
I don’t mind it and I see the point as people want official stuff. Also it’s interesting that some of the alts are better than the field stuff. The Mets one is an improvement in many ways although I think the NY subway token logo would be ideal. (Still think this design could work light years better in classic blue and Orange).
I haven’t bought a cap in a while, but I think the O’s CC BP hat will be a purchase soon!
I wish the Nats used the logo from their batting helmets for the BP hats.
These are completely unnecessary, and most are bad, but a few are quite nice. I really like the Phillies, new Cubs and Nationals, and especially Orioles, who should be using that cap instead for the CC.
I would love to see some of these in game.
The bar is pretty low, but I could go for Texas and Cincinnati’s caps over the present CC version.
IMO, this Guardians cap is just as nice as their regular CC cap. I love the statue logo.
cub+guitar = fun
I don’t see it mentioned here, but it looks like the Cardinals launched theirs on the field today. I’m assuming that’s the hat in the post with the puppy pictures today on the Cardinals official IG.
I just saw Royce Lewis wear a version of the hat shown here pregame, so I think they’re coming soon for everybody.
Oh FFS!
The Cubs hat isn’t the BP fabric, so I think that’s just an alternate cap for the CC collection. The Twins have one with the MN logo as an alternate, so the logo could be the same. But it won’t be the royal blue.
Can anyone explain the Cincinnati cap to us? I can’t quite make out the wording below the pot leaf.
Latin for “Strength In Unity” It is the Cincinnati motto.
Not going to lie, I like these. They should have skipped the whole CC program and just made some nice hats.
I agree. I like some of these designs and it’d be neat if these were just some fluff designs they put out for those who like that sort of thing, which I used to be before they started this city connect nonsense.
If you spin through Padres pre-game last night, you’ll see an interview with Mike Schildt wearing the actual on-field version of the hat. I loved it immediately and went looking for it on sale. This explains why I wasn’t able to find it!
Based on the admittedly-unscientific methodology of “what I see people wearing out and about in the DC area,” the new Nats City Connect BP hat is FAR more popular than their actual CC hat. I actually haven’t seen a single person wearing the normal hat or jersey outside of the ballpark, while the “DC” BP hat can be spotted all around town. Not as popular as the original CC, but fans definitely like it.
That Guardians cap logo should absolutely, positively be their primary logo, and replace the awful winged-G.
Some of these are actually really nice. The best part of the CC program might be some of their hats.
I know nobody will see this but have to say that every single one is trash!