Major League Baseball

MLB players debuting on Opening Day will have special patches on jerseys

Updated Mar. 30, 2023 3:56 p.m. ET

MLB Players making their big-league debuts will be especially marked this season.

Major League Baseball announced before Thursday’s openers that players making their first appearances will wear debut patches on their jerseys. The patch will appear on different places of a sleeve, depending on the team and any anniversary of sponsor patches.

"What is better than having a one-on-one card from the uniform the player wore in their first game," Fanatics founder Michael Rubin said in a Twitter video about the event. "This is owning part of history."

After a player appears in his first game, the patch will be authenticated and placed on a Topps baseball card as part of an agreement reached by MLB and the business wing of the players’ association with Fanatics Collectibles, a division of Fanatics that acquired the trading card company Topps last year.

One card with the patch will be available for each player.

Some prospects expected to make debuts and earn the new patch include Chicago White Sox Oscar Colas, New York Yankees Anthony Volpe, St. Louis Cardinals Jordan Walker, and Milwaukee Brewers Brice Turang and Gus Varland. Managers announced these players made their respective team's opening days rosters in the past couple of weeks.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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