Baseball’s trade deadline has passed, but there is always time to trade in an MLB ride
The MLB trade deadline landed today, August 3, 2026, giving baseball fans a full day of rumors, surprise moves and roster reshuffling. For car enthusiasts, it is also a good excuse to look at another side of the sport: the machines players drive when they leave the ballpark. MLB says the 2026 deadline was set for August 3 at 6 p.m. ET, avoiding the awkward possibility of players being traded during games.
Baseball and car culture have always shared a certain rhythm. Both are nostalgic, deeply personal and full of statistics, stories and loyalty. A player’s car can say something about his public personality: loud and customized, quiet and tasteful, old-school and sentimental or built entirely around speed. Some MLB stars collect exotic cars, others prefer American muscle, and a few have made their vehicles part of their image almost as much as their swing or fastball.
That is what makes baseball’s car guys interesting. They are not all chasing the same kind of machine. A garage can be a trophy case, a childhood dream, a custom art project or simply a way to enjoy the freedom that comes with a big-league career.
Yoenis Céspedes made spring training a car show
Few modern baseball players have turned cars into a spectacle quite like Yoenis Céspedes. During 2016 spring training with the Mets, Céspedes became a daily automotive headline by arriving in one heavily customized vehicle after another. MLB reported that his collection included a custom Ford F-250, Polaris Slingshots, a Lamborghini Aventador, an Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione and a Jeep Wrangler, with the group valued at nearly $1 million.
The cars were not subtle. His Lamborghini Aventador was reportedly rebuilt and customized extensively, while his Polaris Slingshot wore dramatic colors and his number. The effect was somewhere between exotic-car meet, music video and spring-training clubhouse comedy. Teammates and reporters stopped to look, and Céspedes seemed to enjoy turning the players’ lot into a rolling show.
What made Céspedes’ collection memorable was not just the money involved. It was the personality. His cars were loud, playful and visually impossible to ignore, matching the flair he brought to the field when healthy. For a few weeks, spring training had its own unofficial concours: whatever Céspedes drove that morning.
Corvettes, Cutlasses and muscle-car memories
Mike Trout’s car story has a more Chevrolet-flavored twist. After winning the 2014 All-Star Game MVP award, Trout received a new Corvette Stingray, choosing America’s sports car as part of the prize presentation. MLB’s own video archive shows Trout collecting the Ted Williams All-Star Game MVP Award and choosing between a Corvette and a Silverado, making the moment one of the more visible modern connections between baseball and Detroit performance.
Mookie Betts has also been linked to Corvette culture. Reports and fan-circulated footage have shown him arriving at Fenway Park during his Red Sox years in a blue retro-styled Chevrolet Corvette, a fitting ride for a player whose game blends precision, speed and style. Unlike Céspedes, Betts’ car image has often felt more understated: less outrageous collection, more tasteful American performance.
Then there is CC Sabathia, whose car connection runs straight through classic American muscle. In a GQ essay, Sabathia described having his dream car in the driveway: a 1972 Oldsmobile Cutlass convertible repainted silver and black in honor of the Oakland Raiders. That detail makes his automotive taste feel especially personal. It is not just about speed or status. It is about memory, place and identity—the same reasons so many enthusiasts fall in love with old cars in the first place.
Reggie Jackson may be baseball’s ultimate car collector
For classic car fans, the most important baseball name may still be Reggie Jackson. Known as “Mr. October” for his postseason heroics, Jackson also became one of America’s best-known celebrity car collectors. He has been associated with major muscle cars, collector-car auctions and a long-standing passion for performance machinery. MotorCities describes him as one of America’s great classic and muscle car collectors, while UPI quoted Jackson in 1982 saying he had become a muscle car collector with one of the top collections in the country.
His collection also carries one of the hobby’s nightmare stories. In 1988, a fire reportedly destroyed about 35 cars from a collection that numbered around 100 vehicles. Even after that loss, Jackson remained closely tied to the collector-car world, later selling and dealing in important cars rather than simply buying them.
That is why Jackson belongs in a different category from most athlete car owners. Plenty of players buy impressive cars. Jackson became a recognizable figure in the car hobby itself. Like baseball cards, vintage jerseys and old ballparks, classic cars are about preserving stories. Reggie Jackson understood that better than most, which makes him not just an MLB legend with cars, but a true car guy who happened to hit 563 home runs.
