Earlier this week when the Red Sox posted their photos from team picture day, it immediately became apparent that something was off with the club’s home white jerseys.

Unlike in previous years where there was clear separation between the words “Red” and “Sox” and the red piping running down the front of the uniform, this year the words appeared to overlap with the red lines. The Nike “Swoosh” logo also appeared notably tighter than in the past.

Compared to last year (left), there’s something off about the lettering on the Red Sox’ home whites this year (right). pic.twitter.com/1whb3Vlyj8

— Brendan Campbell (@brendan_camp) February 17, 2026

Wednesday afternoon the Red Sox addressed those concerns.

“As part of Major League Baseball’s return to the 2023 jersey template, we approved a design for our home white jerseys, which Fanatics produced exactly to our specs. Once they were produced and seen in person, we felt there should be more spacing between the lettering and piping,” the Red Sox said in a statement. “In collaboration with MLB and Fanatics, we’re adjusting the home whites to achieve this separation. The updated jerseys will be ready for Opening Day. We are grateful to our partners for their ongoing support.”

It was an updated version of similar initial statement, with the most notable change being the addition language absolving Fanatics of blame.

The original statement opened by saying: “As part of Major League Baseball’s return to the 2023 jersey template, we approved a design for our home white jerseys that, once produced and seen in person, we felt could be cleaner in the spacing between the lettering and piping.”

Half an hour after the Red Sox posted the revised statement, they attached a second tweet:

“To be clear, the original design was selected by the Red Sox. Fanatics executed to our specifications and has been an outstanding partner throughout. They deserve no blame and we are grateful to them for making the new jerseys in time for Opening Day.”

The Red Sox’s off-looking home jerseys mark the latest uniform-related dust-up to befall MLB over the past few years, and this one was an unintended consequence of trying to correct a previous misstep.

Prior to the 2024 season MLB switched to a new uniform template designed by Nike that was touted as being more lightweight and breathable than previous iterations. But the new uniforms flopped spectacularly upon their debut in spring training, with players complaining that the jerseys looked cheap, felt papery and that the names on the back were too small.

There were also a myriad of issues related to the uniforms pants.

“The pants are super see-through. It’s not professional,” then-Red Sox pitcher Nick Pivetta told the Herald at the time. “I don’t know, I’m not going to complain too much, it’s a big league uniform, but there are little tiny details that used to be better and it seems like they just changed a couple things.”

The blowback was so fierce that MLB and Nike unwound the changes and returned to the previous uniform template in 2025. That process evidently didn’t go completely without a hitch, but the Red Sox were quick to address this year’s issue once it came to light.