Bryce Harper’s jersey one of the most popular of 2024 season

There are a lot of baseball-related categories in which it’s pretty much impossible to compete with Shohei Ohtani. Anything related to popularity certainly qualifies.

But among all players not named Ohtani, Bryce Harper paced the field in jersey sales during the 2024 regular season, according to MLB.com. He had the second-most popular jersey in the league this year, based on sales of Nike threads from MLBShop.com — behind Ohtani and directly ahead of Aaron Judge (third) and Mookie Betts (fourth).

Surprisingly, during the 2023 season, Harper wasn’t in the top 20 in MLB.com jersey sales, a list also led by Ohtani in his final season as a Los Angeles Angel. While data from the year before isn’t easily accessible, Harper’s jersey was 11th in his MVP 2021 season, third in 2020 and second in his inaugural season with the Phillies in 2019.

Perhaps it’s not surprising that Harper’s spike up the jersey sales chart coincided with the release of the Phillies’ new City Connect jerseys (likely the biggest driver), plus their first division title since 2011 and Harper’s first All-Star Game appearance as a Phillie. Harper’s jersey sales ranked second, as well, by the All-Star Break, when he was still somewhat in the conversation for his third MVP. His numbers fell off a bit in the second half — his season as a whole was his second-worst, statistically, of the current decade — but he did appear in the most games, 145, of that same span, and visibility can’t hurt sales.

Harper wasn’t the only Phillie in the top 20, per MLB.com — Trea Turner’s No. 7 jersey ranked 13th. Prior to this season, no Phillie other than Harper had cracked the top 20 in jersey sales since he signed with Philadelphia.

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