Major League Baseball announced the most popular jerseys for the first half of the 2024 season on Friday, and Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani led the way in jersey sales worldwide. Joining him near the top of the leaderboard are Phillies first baseman Bryce Harper and Yankees slugger Aaron Judge.
"After finishing the 2023 season with the most popular jersey in the league, Ohtani remains the first Japanese player to lead the list since MLB and the Major League Baseball Players Association began releasing jersey rankings in 2010," the MLB and MLBPA wrote in a press release. "A true global superstar, Ohtani's jersey surpassed all MLB players in the U.S., Japan and around the world."
Harper and Judge are the top All-Star vote getters in the National and American Leagues, respectively. Harper will be heading to his eighth All-Star Game and seventh as a starter, while this year marks the sixth appearance for Judge.
This year's list also features a group of diverse backgrounds, as, according to the MLB: "Nine of the players making up the 20 highest selling jerseys were born outside of the U.S., hailing from Japan, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Puerto Rico."
The Dodgers and Phillies are the only teams to boast multiple players in the top 20, with league-leading Philadelphia doing so for the first time since 2011. Aside from Ohtani, Los Angeles is also represented by star shortstop Mookie Betts at No. 4 and standout first baseman Freddie Freeman at No. 20 on the list. Harper is joined by All-Star shortstop Trea Turner at No. 13. All-Stars Elly De La Cruz of the Cincinnati Reds and Adley Rutschman of the Baltimore Orioles were also featured for the second time, occupying the No. 15 and 16 slots.
