Rob Manfred: MLB Discourages Teams from Pride Logos on Uniforms to ‘Protect Players’

Jim Davis/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

With June being Pride Month, Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred was asked Thursday following the owners meetings in New York about the possibility of LGBTQ+ Pride celebrations being standardized leaguewide in the future.

Each individual club currently makes the determination of whether to host a Pride-themed night, but Manfred said Thursday that the league has discouraged teams from wearing Pride logos on their jerseys this season to “protect” the players.

“We have told teams, in terms of actual uniforms, hats, bases that we don’t think putting logos on them is a good idea just because of the desire to protect players,” Manfred said, according to Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post. “Not putting them in a position of doing something that may make them uncomfortable because of their personal views.”

During the 2022 season, the Tampa Bay Rays had several players elect not to wear the team’s rainbow-colored Pride gear due to personal beliefs. MLB wanted to avoid that happening again this season and told clubs in February that it “did not want uniform space used to promote specific causes that were not league-driven,” per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times.

The Rays changed their plan for this year’s Pride celebration following MLB’s directive, opting against wearing rainbow-colored patches and logos on their jerseys and hats.

The Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants were still allowed to sport Pride-themed patches and gear this season due to a pre-existing agreement, according to Topkin.

Twenty-nine of MLB’s 30 teams are holding Pride nights in 2023. The Texas Rangers are the lone club to opt against hosting a Pride celebration this season.