Yankees swap baseball gloves for baking aprons, launching HOPE Week at Je T’aime Patisserie

What does an MLB team do with an off-day? For the Yankees, it was about more than rest. On Monday, players spent part of their day at Je T’aime Patisserie in Brooklyn, trading their game-day routines for aprons and the work of pastry preparation as they kicked off HOPE Week.

According to the team and MLB, the activity centered on making cream and peach croissants. Working inside the bakery, the players followed instructions from the shop’s owner and pastry chef, Jatee Kearsley, turning a neighborhood food stop into a structured, hands-on community moment.

The Yankees do not typically suit up on off-days in a way that reaches outside the clubhouse. HOPE Week, however, is designed around visible, local engagement, and this pastry workshop functioned as a public-facing example of that theme. By showing up in person at a Brooklyn business, the Yankees connected the event to the city’s everyday life, not just the sport.

The bakery setting also gave the day a distinctly “team-building” flavor, even though it was not part of baseball operations. Croissants require patience and attention, with timing and technique that do not reward rushing. In that sense, the exercise echoed the discipline teams often talk about in baseball, translating it into a different craft.

HOPE Week itself is part of MLB’s broader focus on uplifting communities, and the Yankees’ participation underscored that the team’s offseason is not limited to training and travel. Events like this are meant to bring the sport closer to the people who live near it, and to create shared experiences that are easy for fans and neighbors to understand.

For Yankees fans, the moment is unlikely to change the standings or the next homestand. It does, however, offer a clearer look at how the organization is choosing to use its players’ time when baseball pauses. With the season continuing, the next question is whether the Yankees keep building these kinds of local touchpoints throughout HOPE Week and beyond, and how fans in Brooklyn respond to seeing the team in a non-baseball role.