MLB Players Weekend 2026: the wildest custom bats around the league
TLDR: Players Weekend is back, and this year the storyline isn't the jerseys — it's the bats, from Pokemon art to a Home Run Derby trophy tribute.
MLB's Players Weekend runs August 21-23 this year, and while the league scrapped the nickname jerseys and special uniforms a few seasons back, it swapped that gimmick for something arguably better: hundreds of players showing up with custom-painted bats, cleats and gear that say more about who they are than any back-of-jersey nickname ever did. Barstool Baseball clearly misses the old format, though.
Happy MLB “Players Weekend” to everyone who observes…..let us not forget the original “Players Weekends” and what they took from us. Special jerseys Customized nicknames Bring it back!
Nostalgia aside, this year's bat game might be the best it's ever been. The Phillies came out swinging some serious custom lumber for the occasion.
But the bats that actually broke the internet belong to Jake Mangum. He's rolling with a 3-bat set painted like the original starter Pokemon evolutions — Charizard, Blastoise and Venusaur — full-on '151 set' energy on grown-man lumber. It's the kind of thing that makes you jealous of a guy who gets to bring childhood cartoons to work.
Charizard, Blastoise, and Venasaur bats for Players Weekend? Living out every kids dream
The reaction online was basically unanimous: living out every kid's dream. Barstool Sports zoomed in on the same three bats, and it's easy to see why they went viral — the artwork looks closer to a mural than something that's about to get slung at a 95-mph fastball.
Not to be outdone, Jordan Walker showed up carrying a bat commemorating a Home Run Derby championship — a detail Barstool Baseball noted would probably sting a little for Phillies fans in the building that night. And it's not just bats. Red Sox players were spotted showing off their own Players Weekend haul, including custom cleats repping their home country's flag colors, with one player calling the pair a gift he was proud to wear.
After the weekend wraps, players get to auction off this gear through MLB Auctions with proceeds going to charities of their choice — so somewhere out there, a very lucky Pokemon fan with disposable income is about to own Jake Mangum's Charizard bat.
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