Major League Baseball, Topps, Fanatics and Nike are collaborating on a new way of celebrating individual award winners through the MLB logo patches on their jerseys.
Debuted by NL MVP Shohei Ohtani during Saturday’s exhibition game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Yomiuri Giants in Tokyo (pictured above), each of the league’s six individual award winners — also including AL MVP Aaron Judge, NL Cy Young winner Chris Sale, AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal, NL Rookie of the Year Paul Skenes and AL Rookie of the Year Luis Gil — will have special gold embellished versions of the silhouetted MLB logo patches on the back of all their jerseys throughout the season. Those patches usually match the color scheme of each team’s jersey, so the gold patches will stand out from those worn by every other player in the league.
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The gold MLB logo patches will be authenticated over the course of the season and 10 for each player will be removed from the jersey and put into Topps trading cards the following year. It is not yet known exactly which sets those cards will go into. Fanatics will also make retail versions of each player’s authentic Nike jerseys (home, away, alternate and City Connect) with the gold patches that will be sold.
𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆: MLB, Topps & Fanatics have partnered on a brand-new Gold MLB Logo Patch program.
Six award winners — Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani, Paul Skenes, Luis Gil, Tarik Skubal, and Chris Sale — will wear a Gold MLB Logo Patch throughout the 2025 season.
These game-worn… pic.twitter.com/TQba21SYxP
— Topps (@Topps) March 15, 2025
This initiative follows the 2023 introduction of the MLB Debut Patch, which is now worn on the sleeve of every player during their MLB debut game and then removed and put into one-of-a-kind Topps cards that have quickly become highly sought after and valuable. After a widely publicized chase fueled by a bounty offer from the Pittsburgh Pirates, Skenes’ Debut Patch card is currently up for auction with a high bid of $660,000 and five days left to go. The new Gold Logoman cards will likely command premium values among collectors, as well.
This is not the first time gold jersey elements are being utilized in MLB, though. In 1994, the league had a different gold-embellished logo patch that players wore on their sleeve to commemorate professional baseball’s 125th anniversary. And since 2005, the defending World Series champions have had gold uniform elements during their home opener. So this season, Ohtani alone will have just a bit more gold than his Dodger teammates that day.
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(Top photo: Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
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