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The first major post-Opening Day content drop for Diamond Dynasty in MLB The Show 25 is here -- and while it may not be quite as big or exciting as some had hoped for, the headliners of this Friday's new 2nd Inning Program are among the biggest names in the history of baseball.
2nd Inning XP Path
The 2nd Inning XP Path that was revealed on a Sony San Diego live stream on Friday and added to the game shortly afterward contains three new Bosses in the form of Bob Gibson, Josh Gibson, and Ken Griffey Jr., new Cornerstone Evolutions of Tony Clark, J.D. Martinez, and Bruce Sutter, and a mid-path reward of Ozzie Smith.
The Bob Gibson obviously isn't meant to be as dominant as the dauntless Cardinals ace was at his best, but it checks in as clearly the best free starting pitcher in Diamond Dynasty. His stuff should be nasty, with a 98 MPH fastball, an 89 MPH slider, and a 95 MPH sinker as a top-tier trio of pitches, and while he will have a little of the wildness that even the best Gibsons have historically had, 80 BB/9 and 82 Control mean it should not be that pronounced. Not having Outlier or Break Outlier does hurt a bit, but, again, this isn't intended to be an unhittable card, just a superb one.
Josh Gibson might be the most interesting player dropped in all of Diamond Dynasty this year -- and not because of the distinctive crack of his bat, but instead because of his versatility. In addition to his primary position of catcher, he has secondary positions at both corner infield spots AND every outfield position, meaning that he'll be able to rotate throughout the field while remaining a mainstay in most lineups. This makes up a bit for Gibson currently lacking a Captain to boost his stats, as he and every other Negro Leagues legend in Diamond Dynasty today is missing that perk available to MLB players. Whether that versatility makes up for that lack of a boost and his Contact and Power stats being in the low 70s and 90s respectively -- which also means that they will remain under the 80 and 100 thresholds even at Parallel V -- and a complete lack of Quirks is your call.
Of course, even though the unrelated Gibsons are superstars of their eras, there's arguably no player with better name recognition for a certain generation of baseball fans than Griffey the younger, and this card is a great representation of his early-career success with the Mariners, with excellent contact stats and decent power in his legendary lefty swing and a slew of Quirks to help him at the margins. He'll also be a good but not incredible defender, with 81 Speed making up for Silver Defense in center field. And on a baseball card nerd note, this Griffey comes with card art from the long-running Topps Stadium Club series, something that opens up Diamond Dynasty to telling yet more of the story of the sport through some of the best Topps designs.
A rung or two down from the Bosses is the 89 OVR Ozzie Smith, which boasts just Gold Defense to go with good Contact numbers. But as a switch-hitter, his laughable 30 Power against Righties is going to be a factor frequently, and there's no shortage of decent defensive shortstops in DD this year who don't require forfeiting offense almost entirely.
The Cornerstone Evolutions cards, which come as both 80 OVR Golds and 87 OVR Diamonds, are likely to more useful than Ozzie. The Diamond Sutter should slot into practically any bullpen in Diamond Dynasty, especially as a free option, but the Diamond Martinez comes with some of the best hitting stats on any card and could be the best designated hitter in the game for a week or two. Clark's 87, by contrast, is going to be the third choice for nearly every player, as he's more of a balanced and unspectacular option.
The 2nd Inning XP Path will be available for four weeks, with a changeover to the 3rd Inning XP Path set for Friday, May 9th at the same 3 p.m. Eastern/noon Pacific time of most content drops in MLB The Show 25.
April Spotlight Drop 2
April Spotlight Drop 2 brings a new set of the week's standouts, with Topps Now versions of Jacob Wilson and Carson Kelly as the reward path's 86 OVR low Diamonds, and Spotlight players Trent Grisham as the 88 OVR high Diamond. The pack players are Topps Now 86 OVR versions of Ivan Herrera, Jake Mangum, and Tomoyuki Sugano, and 88 OVR Kris Bubic and Tyler Soderstrom as rare round pulls.
Team Affinity Missions Update
New Team Affinity Parallel XP missions have also been added to each team's program, with players tasked with garnering 1,000, 2,000, 4,000, and 8,000 Parallel XP with players from each MLB squad. Altogether, these new missions offer 45,000 Team Affinity XP, which is almost the entire distance from the bottom rung of each XP path to the Diamond-level Jolt Series players on each.
But with no new rewards on the Team Affinity paths and seemingly no players set to be added until All-Stars are revealed and released in July, it's hard to make a great case for investing heavily into Team Affinity progress even with another Double Parallel XP weekend instituted for the next few days. That boost makes this a fine time to make some progress on the monstrous Team Affinity XP reward paths, sure -- but what's the point of doing so, exactly, when the major non-cosmetic rewards for doing so are 90 days away?
