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Paul Skenes joins cover mate Elly De La Cruz with a bespoke Takeover program of his own.
Paul Skenes Program Yields Free 94 OVR Pirates Ace
As one of the three cover stars for MLB The Show 25 and one of baseball's budding superstars in real life, there was little doubt that Paul Skenes would factor into Diamond Dynasty in a major way this year. And now, after fellow cover athlete Elly De La Cruz took his turn in getting a Takeover program in May, Skenes gets one as summer truly arrives, with a hot new 94 OVR card to headline it.
"Hot" and "new" sadly do not also mean "great," as this Skenes only gets one triple-digit stat -- 101 Pitching Clutch -- despite the real-life Skenes threatening the title of best pitcher in baseball for a second straight year. His five-pitch repertoire is fearsome, to be sure, with an Outlier fastball and an Outlier splitter that has 99 Break and plays well off his 99 Break vulcan change, but his sweeper is a fairly average pitch for DD and his K/9, BB/9, and HR/9 all sit in the 80s. That just feels underwhelming for a pitcher who has given up a single homer in his last 10 starts and allowed more than four hits once in that same span -- but Skenes also hasn't made it to double-digit strikeouts once this season, meaning he's still at just two such outings in his MLB career. Some of that is an artifact of those outings mostly being six- or seven-inning efforts, sure -- but if that is the case, why does this card have 95 Stamina?
Assuredly, there's a much better version of Skenes than this one in the offing for Diamond Dynasty, whether that's a card for his inevitable All-Star appearance or something tied to an award later this year, and it's not that big a deal that a free card that can be obtained easily -- four moments, four stat missions tied to Pirates players, and two stat missions tied to using either the 80 OVR Starter program Skenes or his relatively affordable Live Series card will get it done -- isn't a world-beater.
But if you were wanting an unquestionably elite Skenes -- a reasonable desire for a pitcher whose 2025 ERA of 1.85 is only slightly lower than his career ERA of 1.91, not to mention a popular player whose relationship with former LSU gymnast and social media superstar Livvy Dunne has given him maybe the highest profile of any MLB player of his generation -- this isn't that card.
June Spotlight Drop 2 Brings Jacob Misiorowski, Evan Carter -- and Rafael Devers
In somewhat less exciting news, another Friday means another weekly edition of drops for the June Spotlight program. This week's features Rangers center fielder Evan Carter on the free XP reward path side and Brewers fireballer Jacob Misiorowski and Giants third baseman Casey Schmitt in its packs.
Of those three cards, all of which check in at 94 OVR, Misorowski is undoubtedly the most appealing. Fresh off five no-hit innings in his MLB debut -- which also featured an ankle injury that might preclude him from being as effective as the summer progresses -- Milwaukee's top prospect comes equipped with a 99 MPH fastball with Outlier I and a 92 MPH slider with Outlier II, a fantastic 1-2 pairing of pitches that should make up for his other two selections being a curveball and a circle change. 108 Hits/9 and 109 Pitching Clutch are likely to make him a pain to hit against, too, though the 58 BB/9 and 62 Control will keep him wild enough to make patience pay off.
Schmitt and Carter better fit the fine but unspectacular mold a lot of Spotlight players do, with Schmitt's secondary positions spanning the entire infield and his fine array of hitting stats -- 97/109 Contact/Power against righties, 107/84 against lefties, and 109 Clutch -- making him the better player. Carter's more limited as a lefty bat who excels against righties (101/103) and has 105 Clutch, but is also a better defender, with 95 Speed that is top-tier for a center fielder.
Other notable players in the Spotlight drop include Red Sox superprospect Roman Anthony getting a 92 OVR Topps Now card that is unlockable on the XP reward path and has stellar contact skills, a Grant Holmes that checks in with 100 Stamina, 105 K/9, and no pitch harder than 95 MPH to represent the Braves hurler's 15-strikeout outing against the Rockies, and Rays lefty reliever Ian Seymour having triple-digit H/9, K/9, and Pitching Clutch to go with 99 Break and a five-pitch arsenal with a 19-MPH differential between his fastball and a 12-6 curve that sits at 72 MPH. As an annoying option out of the pen, there are much worse options than Seymour.
Additionally, the Spotlight program got a nice shot in the arm from an unexpected source this week: Rafael Devers being unexpectedly dealt to the Giants. That monumental move yields a new New Threads Devers at 94 OVR that is unlockable by collecting two of the XP reward path players in the June Lightning collection. With all of his Contact, Power, and Clutch stats ranging from 96 to 110, he's every bit the excellent hitter Devers is in real life -- though, of course, he's also a third baseman with no secondary positions, his protestations that he will play wherever the Giants want him to having not yet manifested in him registering the defensive innings at first that the Red Sox all but begged him for.
Given that the April Lightning collection doesn't have a halfway-point reward and that the May collection's reward is just a singular April Spotlight pack, a Devers that is good enough for basically any Diamond Dynasty lineup is a big boon for players.
Odds and Ends
- New Multiplayer missions for the Multiplayer 4 program have been released, and so have a 93 OVR Ian Happ with great Contact and fine fielding befitting a Gold Glove-branded card and a 94 Manny Machado that is about a half-tick better than the Spotlight Schmitt.
- This Friday's new Supercharged players are Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado, fresh off his 350th home run, and Athletics first baseman Nick Kurtz, who walked off the Astros with home runs twice this week. Each player is boosted to 94 OVR though the weekend.
