See the Yankees Players' Weekend nicknames

See the Yankees Players' Weekend nicknames

August 9th, 2018

For the second consecutive year, Major Leaguers will put their personalities and passions on the field when Players' Weekend takes center stage during all games from Friday, Aug. 24, through Sunday, Aug. 26.
Here are the nicknames the Yankees will wear on their backs while sporting colorful, non-traditional uniforms featuring alternate designs inspired by youth-league uniforms:
:: Players' Weekend presented by Valspar Stain ::
• Shop for Players' Weekend gear
• 2018 Players' Weekend nicknames
• Best nickname for every team
• All you need to know about Players' Weekend
Yankees
: "PAPÁ"
-- Andujar was the first-born in his family, so his father called him "Papa," joking that his eldest son would one day take care of him. Many of his teammates and friends back home in the Dominican Republic continue to use the nickname for Andujar.
: "EL ACIDO"
-- "It's a nickname I had as a kid," Betances said. "My older cousins gave it to me. I was a little feisty as a kid. I was very wired, electric. If a video game was messed up, I was the guy. I think the people in my family, when they see it, they'll get a kick out of it."

Greg Bird: "BIRD"
Zach Britton: "ANGLADA"
-- Britton wanted to honor his Dominican roots with a grandmother's maiden name, Anglada, on the back of his uniform. "This was in the offseason and the Orioles asked me what I wanted to do, and I was kind of like, 'I don't really have a nickname,'" Britton said. "Last year I went with 'Brit' and somebody from the team was like, 'Why don't you do something with your Dominican name?' because it's not necessarily a nickname thing, it's telling something that's unique about yourself to the fans. So I thought that'd be cool. All the Dominican family with 'Anglada,' they live in New York and the Dominican. So, that's why we did that. They're huge Yankees fans and they'll see 'Anglada' on the uniform and they'll be pretty happy."
: "THE MISSILE"
A.J. Cole: "AJ"
: "ELLSBURY"
: "EL ROJO"
: "GARDNER"
: "PICKLES"
-- "When we came up with these nicknames [last year], I was in Oakland, and that's just what a few guys called me," Gray said, with a chuckle. "I just kind of put it. I don't know. When we did this, everyone was just throwing stuff out there. I don't have a good answer, man. I really don't."
Didi Gregorius: "THE KNIGHT"
-- Gregorius was formally knighted as a member of Order of Orange-Nassau after helping the Netherlands national baseball team to a championship in the 2011 IBAF Baseball World Cup. "Instead of giving us money, they decided to just knight us, all the guys that had a clean record," Gregorius said. "I'm happy to say it out loud every day."
: "GREENY"
J.A. Happ: "HAPPER"
: "HELLER"
: "HICKSIE"
: "HOLDY"
: "JUDGE"
: "MIA"
-- Although it's commonly mistaken for "MIA" as in "missing in action," Lynn chose the name of his 6-year-old daughter, Mia, to sport on the back of his uniform for Players' Weekend.
"It's for my daughter, but everyone's like, 'What's MIA mean?'" Lynn said. "I say, 'I guess that's for everyone to wonder.'"u1:p

: "MONTY"
: "D-ROB"
: "RO"
: "DUB"
: "KRAKEN"
-- Sanchez's "Kraken" nickname was bestowed upon him late in 2015 by Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, who would later explain that he pulled the reference from the 2006 movie "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," in which Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow character encounters a colossal octopus. "For some reason, it came to me that Gary Sanchez was a mystical beast, that his bat could unleash fury on his opponents," Cashman said. "The one thing that we always talked about when we saw him coming through the system was that the ball off his bat sounds different. The crack of the bat, the Kraken being a mystical beast, it all fit."
: "SEVY"
: "G"
: "TANAKA TIME"
: "GT"
: "LOUIS"
: "WALKIE"