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A first look at the next iteration of MLB The Show is a peek at some upgrades and overhauls for the venerable series.
The Gameplay Mode Changes
The first gameplay trailer for MLB The Show 26, released this Tuesday, February 3rd, focuses heavily on updates to Road to the Show, its signature single-player mode, peppering in details about the climb to Cooperstown available to players.
From that trailer, what stands out first is an apparent deepening and broadening of the Road to the Show experience, with an "expanded amateur experience" appearing to include more high school baseball, 11 more schools -- including Arkansas, Florida, Michigan, Stanford, and Fresno State, alma mater of MLB The Show 26 cover athlete Aaron Judge -- being available for the college baseball part of the journey, and possibly a stronger emphasis on the pre-MLB Draft process for prospects. Shots from buses, locker rooms, and most notably a licensed Charles Schwab Field, the Omaha-based home of the College World Series, could portend more detail on that end of The Show's career simulation mode. (Notably absent from the trailer, though, is a formal mention of the College World Series, suggesting that the game is still going to feature a fictional College Baseball Championship instead.)
But an emphasis on the World Baseball Classic and the introduction of the Tokyo Dome as a stadium are both exciting in their own right, with the inclusion of all 20 WBC federations also helping up the verisimilitude. Seemingly tying the WBC to Diamond Dynasty alone, though, would not make fans of modes outside of DD particularly pleased -- and not permitting Road to the Show players to make their national teams for WBC play would qualify as a significant missed opportunity. (And as cool as having the Tokyo Dome in the game is after not including it in a year that MLB began in Japan, the absence of the legendary Hiram Bithorn Stadium that will host pool play in San Juan, Puerto Rico this March from this trailer is a sign it might not be part of the game, either.)
The Gameplay Changes
Apart from what look like what are still back-of-the-box bullet points for Road to the Show and Diamond Dynasty -- as, y'know, The Show still moves huge numbers of physical copies each year -- the major changes featured in this gameplay trailer boil down to a new mechanic, an overhaul to attributes, and what feels like an annual attempt to fix simulation logic.
The first of those is what is dubbed Bear Down Pitching, tagged with the phrase "deliver when it counts," and is exemplified by Phillies closer Jhoan Duran getting a zoomed-in view of Austin Riley, then fanning him on some filth low and inside. Will the mechanic mean putting some extra velocity or break on a given pitch in a clutch moment, or slowing down -- read: easing -- the timing and execution necessary to make a perfect pitch in the existing pinpoint pitching interface? It's hard to tell. But amping up in a crucial moment for a pitcher would also be something that could dovetail nicely with World Baseball Classic games, considering the last iteration of the event featured showdowns between Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout, among others, in situations that captivated the viewing audience.
The overhaul to attributes is a twofold endeavor: There are, incredibly, "new" attributes that would appear to be limited to breaking down the previously existing Reactions rating into a Directional Reaction/Jump rating for forward, backward, right, and left jumps, which ... is granular, at least? A new attributes screen also gathers the various ratings players are very familiar with into six groups -- Contact, Power, Fielding, Speed -- which is comprised of, um, Speed -- Arm, and Intangibles. Nowhere to be seen on that screen? Durability and Baserunning Aggressiveness, two ratings that have been mysterious at best for several years, and which might be fine to mothball.
But then there's also messaging for a "Ratings Overhaul" that promises "ratings that set players apart," which could mean a multitude of things. Is Sony San Diego scrapping its longstanding commitment to ratings that reflect players' careers over multiple years to better reflect recent performance? Are specific players going to have ratings that break the mold to better make Judge or Cal Raleigh feared sluggers or Paul Skenes a more dominant ace? It's not clear, and this is something that will surely require more explanation.
And, finally, there's something for the armchair managers and GMs in the form of "the new front office," which advertises a new trade hub and modernized lineups and rotations. Whether that's just more tweaking to the simulation logic that is a bugaboo for franchise players or a true sea change remains to be seen, but betting on the former is usually sound.
The Changes for the Eagle-Eyed
And as is habit for Sony San Diego, it's also true that some of the bigger additions to MLB The Show 26 might not have actually been spelled out in the gameplay trailer, forcing fans to use their eyes and brains to suss out what they are.
The obvious additions in that category are the inclusions of Albert Pujols, Felix Hernandez, and Roy Campanella as players who will be available in Diamond Dynasty and possibly other modes, with vignettes of each tacked on to the end of the trailer. In Campanella's case, this is done with him in the uniform of the Baltimore Elite Giants, the Negro League franchise he played for (when they were the Washington Elite Giants) at the age of 15 and starred for before making the late-career transition to the Brooklyn Dodgers after Jackie Robinson broke the MLB color barrier; if Campanella, whose baseball life is a rich tapestry, is the focus of the fourth season of Storylines focusing on the Negro Leagues, that mode should once again be a highlight of The Show.
The second most prominent bit of the trailer without a flashy title is the obvious inclusion of Hall of Fame cutscenes for players who qualify for it. Likely limited to Road to the Show, one of these cutscenes as depicted in the trailer includes MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and some other greats of the game -- Ken Griffey Jr., Randy Johnson, and Mike Piazza are clearly visible on a stage with an inductee in one shot -- in a nice lagniappe for a legendary career. How many players get deep enough in their own journeys to garner Cooperstown consideration, and thus see such a cutscene, is something better known to Sony San Diego than its player base at large.
And then there's something not mentioned in the trailer at all but called out on the game's preorder page: "Big Zone Hitting," which is listed alongside Bear Down Pitching under ShowTech Gameplay Enhancements. That Big Zone Hitting didn't make the trailer but did make that page probably means the feature either did not fit in the sizzle reel or was not ready for it, but it also stands to reason that it's possibly just an iterative version of ambush hitting, a primary mechanic added to MLB The Show 25 that ultimately became fairly easy for players to ignore. We'll see if it gets explained in further detail en route to MLB The Show 26's release date.
When Is MLB The Show 26 Available?
Of course, the most important part of the gameplay trailer for many people will be MLB The Show 26's release date, which is technically two dates: March 13, 2026 for Early Access players who preorder the Digital Deluxe Edition that retails for $99.99 or March 17, 2026 for anyone buying the standard edition ($69.99).
Preordering the standard edition will entitle players to modest Diamond Dynasty rewards: A Gold Choice pack and five The Show packs, the latter of which seem to come with the standard version of the game with or without a preorder.
The Digital Deluxe edition tacks on the following for its extra $30:
- Early access beginning March 13
- One Legend Choice pack
- Two WBC Choice packs
- 20 The Show packs
- 20,000 Stubs
- One WBC Uniform pack
- One Cover Athlete Bat Skin pack
- One Equipment pack
- Double Daily Rewards for 30 days
At the outset of Diamond Dynasty, and especially for diehard players, that might be worth the jump up from the standard edition -- but unless any of those packs have outlier pulls, sweat equity will still assuredly equalize a team built early on with one prebuilt during early access.
