Every winter, Jeimer Candelario drives around the Dominican Republic — a place he has called home since he was 5 — finds some baseball fields and pops a trunk brimming with swag.

Candelario, 31, an infielder, plays for the Cincinnati Reds, his fifth career organization and fourth in the past four years. Like every other big leaguer, he accumulates a surplus of clothing and equipment at every stop. So when he spots a group of children playing, he sees it as an opportunity to pay things forward.

“These kids need it a lot more than I do,” Candelario said.

It goes well beyond the on-field uniform. There are team-issued alternate hats and warmer winter hats, Dri-FIT shirts and T-shirts and hoodies. There are shorts and sweats, spring training gear and playoff gear, and every year the looks change — and that’s just the start.

Companies that want to advertise their wares often send free packages to players. Team mantras and inside jokes have a way of finding themselves onto clothing, too. And then there are fan giveaways, which often include beanies, bucket hats or popular player tees. Big leaguers also have equipment deals for cleats, gloves, batting gloves and, of course, more clothing.

“We overconsume for sure,” said Cleveland Guardians outfielder Steven Kwan, who said he wears only four pairs of cleats per season, while some players swap out shoes as often as every series. “It’s a lot,” he said. “It’s too much.”

Kwan said he ends up giving away the bulk of what he gets each year. He has played for only one organization in his career after being drafted by Cleveland in 2018. What do guys who switch teams do with all their old stuff?

In November, Kansas City Royals pitcher Brady Singer’s clothing was spotted at a Goodwill location hours before news broke he had been traded to the Reds. (Singer said later that he had donated his items at the end of the season and that the timing was a coincidence.)

Singer’s teammate Emilio Pagán, with his sixth organization, found a high school student down the street to donate to. Santiago Espinal saves his stuff for his father, who disperses it among co-workers’ families. During the dozen years he spent with the Dodgers, Los Angeles Angels pitcher Kenley Jansen would send all his shirts to Manny Mota, who gave them out at his Dominican baseball league and nonprofit, with cleats and gloves often included.

It can be tough to reuse or recycle anything at the next stop, but sometimes you get lucky.

“See this?” Boston relief pitcher Liam Hendriks said while proudly pointing to a red T-shirt in his locker. “This is from the White Sox.”

The 36-year-old right-hander was back on a major league roster Saturday with the Red Sox, in position to make his first big league appearance since June 9, 2023. He had Tommy John surgery that Aug. 2 and was activated from the IL on Saturday.

Hendriks, who has equipment bags in his garage stuffed with items from more than a half-dozen organizations, wore the shirt underneath his uniform on home Sundays when the Chicago White Sox wore red throwback jerseys up until last year. He pulled the shirt out of storage because he likes the fit and it does not have a logo. No player wants to show up to a new team with another organization’s logo or colors on display.

“I was with the Rangers last,” said White Sox outfielder Travis Jankowski, who has played for seven organizations. “I’m not going to be wearing blue cleats here,” he said, referring to Chicago, where the crosstown Cubs’ colors are similar to the Texas Rangers’ colors.

“You might find some Hedgie catching gear at your local Goodwill,” said Guardians catcher Austin Hedges, who has played for four organizations since his MLB debut in 2015. “I’ve done it all: given to charity, people I know, just dropping it off at a local high school. I’ve had a different number every place I’ve gone, so I have to get new stuff.”

Even if the back of the uniform stays the same, the details rarely do. Seattle Mariners reliever Drew Pomeranz has been on 10 teams, including two organizations twice. When he was with San Diego in 2016, navy blue was one of its primary colors. By 2020, the Padres had gone back to brown and yellow.

“I probably kept a lot more of it than I should,” Pomeranz said. “My kids might like it at some point. All the trends come back around, right? I may be wearing that stuff in 15 years, some of the sweatshirts.”

Reds pitcher Wade Miley, 38, who is in his 15th big league season, has closets so full, you “couldn’t get another hanger in there.” He has also given away plenty.

“What number am I on? Seven, eight, nine? I lost count,” said Miley, who has been in eight organizations and is in his second stint with Cincinnati. Miley has taken a leaner approach the past few years, grabbing only one jersey and leaving the rest in his locker for the clubhouse workers to donate or disperse. The less he has, the less he has to worry about.

“I played with a guy that every time we would get something in our locker, he had a partnership with someone selling game-used stuff, and they’d split the cost,” Pomeranz said. “He had a very clean locker. That’s the best way to do it because you end up keeping stuff you are never going to do anything with.”

One item players almost universally agree on keeping is their jersey top. Pagán, inspired by Mariners outfielder Luke Raley’s custom setup, made lockers for each of his teams in his office. Miley has his hanging on a basement wall. Pomeranz has a trophy room with some of his World Series and playoff memorabilia on display, though he estimates it has “less than a quarter” of the stuff he has kept over the years.

Miley estimates he has upward of 60 pairs of cleats at home. He and Hendriks openly wondered why their wives hadn’t thrown away a lot of their stuff.

Hendriks said he would keep it all just in case, and the decision paid off when he reused the shirt from Chicago in Boston. And one day when he is retired and coming back to camps, he will pull out an equipment bag and rewear it. He scours eBay for older clothing; he thinks the quality was better before Fanatics took over MLB’s merchandise.

“I’d much prefer to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it,” Hendriks said.