The New York Yankees’ navy alternate road jerseys, which would make history if they finally wear them in a game, are “austere” and “don’t stand out at all,” Todd Radom, a leading sports logo designer and uniform expert said.

In other words, they’re boring. Like the Yankees, in a lot of ways.

“And that’s probably what’s right for this team,” he said.

Radom, who designed the logos for the Houston Astros and the Washington Nationals, knows what he’s talking about. He’s designed many things over the years for the Yankees, including the logos for their inaugural season at Yankee Stadium and for the final season at the old stadium.

Radom believes it’s smart for the Yankees to go lowkey for what would be their first alternate jersey, which players recently pitched wearing to team officials.

“A million percent,” he said. “First, do no harm. Protect the brand at all costs — is a really important thing. They’re going to look like the Yankees. When this happens, there will be nothing strange about any of this.”

The Yankees are the only MLB team without an alternate jersey. They wear only their iconic white and pinstripes at home and grays on the road. They are one of two teams without a City Connect jersey. The Athletics, who don’t have a home city, also don’t have one.

News of the possibility of the Yankees wearing alternate jerseys riled up the fan base, which seemed split between upholding tradition and modernizing the organization. For what it’s worth, players like the jerseys.

“I think the alternates are cool,” second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. said. “For me, it’s no big deal which uniforms we wear. When I was in Miami, wearing the teal pinstripes was a big deal. But I’m in New York. It’s pinstripes, and we wear whatever else on the road. The road never really bothered me, or I’ve never thought about, ‘Oh, we need to change,’ or anything. It’s whatever. If they don’t do it, it’s fine with me.”

“They’re the same jersey, just a different color,” catcher J.C. Escarra said. “I know there’s been talk about other designs and stuff, but I feel like that’s the cleanest, original version of it.”

Ben Rice circles the bases in spring training while wearing what could become the Yankees’ first alternate jersey. (Chris Coduto / Getty Images)

The Yankees have shown a willingness to change in recent years under owner Hal Steinbrenner, who will decide whether the club adopts the alternate jerseys. The team eliminated its nearly 50-year-old policy prohibiting facial hair in 2024. It added advertising to its uniform for the first time in 2023.

Fans clutching their pearls over an alternate jersey need to get with reality, said Paul Lukas, who ran Uni Watch, a website that featured stories about sports uniforms.

“The Yankees long ago lost whatever claim they may have once had for their uniforms being more special or old school or sacrosanct or sacred, or whatever term you want to use, than any other teams,” Lukas said. “They’re just part of the Nike-MLB advertising machine. They’re just another cog in that machine. So, alternate jerseys? Sure, why not. I’m sure it will be awful, because most of the alternate jerseys in the league are awful. But I don’t think there’s anything more tragic about the Yankees doing it than any other team.”

But for a long time, alternate jerseys seemed impossible for the Yankees. In 2005, late owner George Steinbrenner said they would never happen under his watch.

“I will not go to alternate uniforms,” Steinbrenner said at the time via spokesman Howard Rubenstein, according to The Associated Press. “The pinstripes represent a great Yankee tradition, and we will maintain that.”

These Yankees alternates are essentially the inverse of their current road grays. They feature “New York” across the chest, and the letters and numbers are gray with white trim. They also have stitched on their sleeves the Starr Insurance logo that’s on the Yankees’ home and road jerseys.

The Yankees already wear them during spring training, and MLB approved them for in-game use before the 2025 season. They’re brought on road trips to be worn during batting practice, though players seldom do so, instead opting for hoodies or T-shirts. Gamers can use them in the video game MLB The Show 26.

“There’s not a whole lot that you should do with the Yankees,” Radom said. “The through line that connects Babe Ruth to (Joe) DiMaggio and (Mickey) Mantle, all the way to (Derek) Jeter and (Aaron) Judge is something that you should respect. As a designer, I would respect it, and embrace it.”

The Los Angeles Dodgers’ recent addition of a blue alternate jersey should serve as a “very instructive example” for the Yankees, Radom said, citing how they, too, “are essentially an inverse version of their regular (road) look.” The Dodgers’ road grays feature “Los Angeles” across the chest in blue.

He also pointed out the Cincinnati Reds were one of the most conservative teams in the 1970s, banning facial hair and forcing players to wear plain black cleats. But when they surprisingly replaced the red on their uniforms with green on St. Patrick’s Day in 1978, people quickly got over it.

But Radom said the Yankees shouldn’t go the route of the Boston Red Sox, who have five jerseys, including a yellow and blue one that’s a nod to the Boston Marathon.

“They’re steeped in tradition, as well,” Radom said of the Red Sox. “I’m not a huge proponent of the Red Sox wearing yellow, but younger fans seem to gravitate toward it. You can embrace tradition, but attitudes change.”

As long as the Yankees don’t mess with wearing the pinstripes at home, they should be fine, Radom said.

“If you’re seeing the Yankees at Yankee Stadium,” he said, “and you’re traveling from out of town or out of the country or you’re a first-time visitor, the Yankees in pinstripes in the Bronx is something that probably should never be diverted from. But this alternate look on the road, that, again, looks very Yankees-like, it’s really not that big of a deal. As I always say, the season is 162 games-plus long. There’s room for some expression.

“The Yankees are probably never going to dive into the deep end of the uniform pool, and they probably shouldn’t. … This I don’t think is too big a deal.”

Radom was grateful the Yankees weren’t reviving an idea from 1974 to wear all-blue jerseys with white pinstripes on the road. Then-public relations director Marty Appel recalled walking into general manager Gabe Paul’s office to see the prototype uniforms splayed over a couch.

“The whole idea of it was so upsetting to me that I remember I had to take a walk outside just to get some fresh air and get it out of my mind,” Appel said.

Those uniforms never saw the light of day. But the current alternates? They’ll probably happen sooner than later, and they’ll be at least a little boring. By design, of course.