Ronald Acuña Jr. tops MLB's most popular jersey in 2023
Ronald Acuña Jr. is one of the premiere players in all of Major League Baseball and that is obvious whether you look at his performance on the field or the amount of jerseys being sold.
Ronald Acuña Jr. led MLB with the top jersey in the first half of 2023, besting Shohei Ohtani, as he did in the MLB All-Star voting. Acuña Jr. was not the only Brave in the top 20 in jersey sales, as three other Braves joined him on the list.
This list is based on jersey sales from MLB's official website since the beginning of opening day.
Ronald Acuña Jr. and Shohei Ohtani lead MLB with the most popular player jerseys of the first half of the 2023 season. 14 of the top 20 players on the list were selected for the 2023 All-Star Game. pic.twitter.com/Jod2TCqhwz
— Mark Feinsand (@Feinsand) July 10, 2023
The 4 Braves on the top 20 list
Of course, Ronald Acuña Jr. leads all Braves players in jersey sales, but Matt Olson, Austin Riley, and Ozzie Albies also take spots in the top 20. Olson placed eighth in jersey sales besting other first basemen like Joey Votto and Freddie Freeman by several spots.
Austin Riley owns the top-selling National League third baseman jersey, behind only Alex Bregman for MLB third basemen. Ozzie Albies had the best-selling jersey for an NL second baseman, and also only trailed an Astro, Jose Altuve, for the major league lead at his position.
All four Braves are currently in Seattle on the National League All-Star team.
This list is limited
Of course, this list only includes Nike-branded jerseys sold on MLBShop.com. MLB's official online shop only includes a limited set of players. Currently, you can only buy jerseys for Ronald Acuña Jr, Matt Olson, Austin Riley, Ozzie Albies, Max Fried, Eddie Rosario, and Joe Jimenez (yes, Joe Jimenez).
Notably absent are All-Stars Sean Murphy, Spencer Strider, Bryce Elder, and Orlando Arcia, as well as 2022 Rookie of the Year, Michael Harris II. While you can order a customized jersey for one of these players, it cost an extra $15.
I personally don't understand MLB's process for deciding which players' jerseys it sells online and which players it doesn't, but it is long past time to sell jerseys for the All-Stars and last year's National League Rookie of the Year.
We need Spencer Strider jerseys now, MLB.