23 Players to Use in MLB The Show 24's Diamond Dynasty Season 4

The great thing about the post-Postseason portion of MLB The Show’s Diamond Dynasty mode is that just about anything is possible. With the changeover to Season 4 and the removal of the loathed eligibility limitations for roster-building, players can now access the whole pool of DD players – and running around like a kid in this candy shop is fun.

So here are 24 players – if maybe more than 24 cards – that Diamond Dynasty players should try out in MLB The Show 24 before retiring it for the year, and how to get them on the field.

Elly De La Cruz, Reds shortstop or relief pitcher

Major League Baseball has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to exciting young players, but none may be more exciting on a moment-to-moment basis than Elly De La Cruz, whose prodigious power and absurd speed in a Usain Bolt-esque frame has made him a wonder to behold. In Diamond Dynasty, he’s almost as good as the real deal, and while no Elly card from this year’s game quite matches what his best from MLB The Show 23 could do, the shortstops have pop at the plate and steal-any-or-all potential on the base paths, while the reliever has a funky, fun delivery and is deployable as a stealth pinch runner. With a decent chance of Elly being the MLB The Show 25’s cover athlete, putting in reps with him now could also double as getting familiar with a fixture for next season.

Best version: 95 OVR All-Star Game (shortstop), 95 OVR Out of Position (relief pitcher)

How to obtain: Season 2 Team Affinity (shortstop), Season 3 Team Affinity (relief pitcher)

Oneil Cruz, Pirates shortstop or center fielder

Much like Elly, Cruz is an athletic freak whose defense and speed make him fun to slot in at shortstop. Unlike his NL Central compatriot, Cruz got moved to the outfield in real life in 2024, so the best version of him in Diamond Dynasty is actually a center fielder who has height and speed that allow him to have utterly ridiculous range. Consider him a riff on Aaron Judge with more speed and less plate proficiency and you have the gist.

Best version: 99 OVR Cornerstone Captain (shortstop), 99 OVR Spooky Series (center fielder)

How to obtain: Captain packs (shortstop), Halloween Program (center fielder)

Aaron Judge, Yankees right fielder

Speaking of the 2024 American League Most Valuable Player: The power is alarming, even on his base Diamond, and you will obviously be able to make defensive plays with Judge that he, uh, may have memorably failed to make in real life. But you’re really going to want a better version of Judge to up his contact numbers — even with a great season of hitting for average, his cards mostly lack in that realm in DD.

Best version: 99 OVR 2024 Finest Series, 99 OVR 2024 All-Star Series

How to obtain: Team Affinity Season 4, 2024 All-Star Week Collection

Chipper Jones, Braves third baseman

No better switch hitter exists in Diamond Dynasty than Ol’ Chip, and Larry Wayne’s lanky frame and superb swing make him a mainstay in the game year after year. This year’s best version has been unavailable for months after arriving earlier than usual, so he might be a familiar face or a new addition to your lineup. Regardless, he rakes, and if you can tolerate defense and speed that are very good but not elite, he could anchor your offense.

Best version: 99 OVR Hall of Fame Series

How to obtain: XP Reward Path

Shohei Ohtani, Dodgers designated hitter

Of course, one of those titanic figures is Shohei Ohtani, whose best position in Diamond Dynasty is right field despite his best card being a designated hitter and his appearances as a fielder in MLB being the stuff of legend in the sense that they haven’t happened. You can’t pitch with this best Ohtani — fair, given that he didn’t pitch in 2024 — but you can do just about everything else — also fair, given his historic 50/50 season. 

And while having to hit 50 homers and steal 50 bases to unlock him is half fun and half tedious, it’s also a feat that makes acquiring him feel like a genuine achievement — and using him feel like a reward.

Best version: 99 OVR Milestone Series

How to obtain: Shohei Ohtani Program

Ronald Acuña Jr., Braves right fielder

And as for rewards, there’s none more satisfying to obtain than the Acuña at the end of the daunting Extreme Program reward path, which requires rigorous and extensive gameplay, and probably either significant skill or a stupendous time sink — maybe both. Good thing that this Acuña, based on his NL MVP-winning 40/70 season of flame in 2023, has everything you could want in a card except height, which his sizzling speed more than compensates for. And El Abusador’s swag is almost unparalleled in DD, with his highlighter-yellow accessories and great no-doubt animation being part of the package.

Best version: 99 OVR Awards Series

How to obtain: Extreme Program

Paul Skenes, Pirates starting pitcher

Far less swaggy — despite his high profile off the field, as the 2024 National League Rookie of the Year and paramour of the popular Livvy Dunne — is the Pirates’ precocious ace. But Skenes throws heat and filth, and few pitchers are more fun to rear back and rifle triple-digit heaters with in Diamond Dynasty. His Out of Position catcher card is also a creative tribute to his background as a backstop in his prep and collegiate days, but it’s limited as a hitter; you want the Prospect or All-Star Skenes and to focus on him as a hurler.

Best version: 99 OVR Pipeline Series

How to obtain: Marketplace or G.O.A.T. Collection

Jimmy Rollins, Phillies shortstop

Jimmy Rollins is a fine shortstop, and was a worthy pick as an XP reward path reward. But he’s on this list because of his secondary position eligibility as an outfielder, because as fun as it is to rope doubles with his compact swing — which makes great use of his tight strike zone and switch-hitting — it’s even more fun to run down shots to the gap and make your opponents’ doubles into outs.

Best version: 99 OVR Milestone Series

How to obtain: XP Reward Path

Greg Maddux, Braves starting pitcher

Maddux is as flashy as eggs and bacon for breakfast; this we know. It’s very satisfying to know that the ball is going where you throw it, though, and that’s what is on offer with Maddux’s command and control, along with elite defense for the position. Power pitching is more fun, sure — but, hey, someone surely digs called strike threes on sinkers low and outside as much as the chicks did long balls in the ‘90s, right?

Best version: 99 OVR Action Figure Series

How to obtain: Season 2 Team Affinity

Juan Soto, Yankees right fielder

Soto is a tough player to capture properly in a video game: So much of his greatness comes from an otherworldly eye and a magisterial sense of what pitches he can pulverize, which leads to magic moments like his ALCS homer. That’s a lot harder to put at the fingers of a player whose patience will never match Soto’s, but the best version of him comes as close to representing the reality of a young hitter who gets many to squint and see the Splendid Splinter as any virtual Soto has. (Sadly, you will not get even a cent of his contract.)

Best version: 99 OVR 2024 Postseason Series

How to obtain: Guardians vs. Yankees Program

Rickey Henderson, Athletics left fielder

Rickey is Rickey, still the best base-stealer in baseball history. That alone is great to inhabit. But he is on this list because of his no-doubt home run animation, which it would be a great shame to spoil. Just get him in the lineup and get good wood on a ball. Trust me.

Best version: 99 OVR Hall of Fame Series

How to obtain: Season 3 Collection

Randy Johnson, Diamondbacks starting pitcher or Mariners outfielder

The Big Unit’s still-recent return to Diamond Dynasty after his retirement and several years of not being part of the player pool makes him a figure with significant mystique. And his pitching cards live up to the fearsome stuff the statuesque ace brought to bear, no question. For fun, though, throw the out of position version of Randy in your outfield, and see how easy it is to rob homers with nearly seven feet of height.

Best version: 99 OVR Hall of Fame Series (starting pitcher), 95 OVR Out of Position Series (outfielder)

How to obtain: XP Reward Path (starting pitcher) or Season 3 Team Affinity (outfielder)

Craig Biggio, Astros “second baseman”

Much like with Rollins at outfielder, Biggio at catcher is perhaps the way to get an all-timer into the lineup in the most impactful fashion. And while he won’t have as much pop as the best sluggers behind the plate, his speed is superlative for the position and turns so many of his liners into doubles and triples that it makes him a catcher that is an offensive weapon in a dramatically different dimension than most.

He’s also a pretty good second baseman.

Best version: 99 OVR Hall of Fame Series

How to obtain: XP Reward Path

Yasmani Grandal, White Sox catcher

And at the other end of the spectrum from Biggio, we have the ponderously plodding Grandal, whose legendarily poor speed is honestly as much of why he is here as his prodigious power and switch-hitting. Crushing  dingers with Grandal is quite fun; trying to stretch a rocket to the gap into a double — or, perish the thought, a triple — with him might be one of the better challenges in all of Diamond Dynasty.

I would not play him at second base, though.

Best version: 97 OVR Topps Now Series

How to obtain: XP Reward Path

Freddie Freeman, Dodgers first baseman

It seemed through four games like Freddie Freeman might author the definitive best World Series performance in baseball history, given his homers in each contest and instantly indelible walk-off grand slam — a distant echo of Kirk Gibson’s — in Game 1. Sadly, Freeman didn’t take a round trip in Game 5, merely finishing his destruction of the Yankees with another couple of runs batted in to help earn his second World Series ring. His Postseason card captures the player who conducted that onslaught well, and there may not be a better right-handed bat in the game – and he has some Captain boosts, to boot.

Best version: 99 OVR Postseason Series

How to obtain: Yankees vs. Dodgers Program

Ketel Marte, Diamondbacks second baseman

Eduardo Escobar, Diamondbacks third baseman

Carlos Santana, Guardians catcher

Let’s group these three switch-hitting sluggers together in an effort to represent what is best about the quality in Diamond Dynasty: Versatility. Marte had the finest season of the three in reality in 2024, and might have been an NL MVP candidate in a dimension without Shohei Ohtani; he and Escobar both have positional versatility throughout the infield and bats that will rap doubles at a minimum. Santana is more like a pure power hitter and doesn’t have the same sort of all-around flexibility, but he slots in well at catcher and can buff your lineup with his invaluable Captain boosts, which are easier than ever to activate with all the mode’s switch hitters eligible for the first time. 

And while a few switch hitters dotting your lineup provided the sort of resistance to aces of one handedness or the other, a full card of such players makes almost every at-bat a neutralization of breaking balls away from hitters and thus a lighter mental load. Assign the value for that that you deem fair — but it ain’t nothing.

Best version: 99 OVR 2024 Finest Series (Marte); 99 OVR Hyper Series (Escobar); 99 OVR Captain Series (Santana)

How to obtain: 2024 Finest Collection (Marte); Season 1 Team Affinity (Escobar); Marketplace or Captain packs (Santana)

Jackson Chourio, Brewers left fielder

Corbin Carroll, Diamondbacks center fielder

Another two-fer: Chourio and Carroll are each exciting young players in their own rights, with Chourio’s postseason heroics and Carroll’s scintillating 2023 campaign being their respective claims to fame, but they’re on this list because of Captain cards that enable team builds around young players (Chourio) and fleet-footed ones (Carroll), respectively. Those teams would be far less competitive or fun without the Captain boosts that these cards have, which makes the cards and the teams better synergistically. While not all of the Captain boosts are really worth it, these are two builds that would be worthwhile without them, and are closer to must-try with them – even though there’s technically a better version of both players that’s also available.

Best version: 99 OVR Captain (Young Guns) or Mets vs. Brewers Program (Chourio); 99 OVR Cornerstone Captain (Speedsters) or Season Awards Program (Carroll)

How to obtain: Captains pack or Postseason Program (Chourio); Captains pack or Season Awards Program (Carroll)

Mason Miller, Athletics closing pitcher

Ben Joyce, Angels closing pitcher

Sometimes you just want to throw gas. Miller and Joyce are the two preeminent fireballers of a rising generation of radar gun incinerators at the MLB level, and they both have something close to the best fastball in MLB The Show, though neither one is, in game, truly representative of the nearly 105 MPH – or, in Joyce’s case, almost 106 MPH – stuff both rear back and fire. While getting these newly terrifying fastball velocities represented in MLB The Show 2025 and beyond has to be on Sony San Diego’s to-do list, Miller and Joyce are frightening as is, with the Outlier quirk powering their velocities beyond mere triple digits.

(Aroldis Chapman is the left-handed version of these guys — or the closest facsimile — but he’s nowhere near as exciting in 2024, and also maybe not a great person. Sorry!)

Best version: 99 OVR 2024 Finest Series (Miller) or 98 OVR Topps Now Series (Joyce)

How to obtain: Season 4 Team Affinity (Miller) or Season 2 Awards Drop 9 (Joyce)

Josh Gibson, catcher

Finally, it would be a crime not to mention at least one of the many Negro Leagues greats that Sony San Diego has done a beautiful, brilliant job of integrating into MLB The Show in recent years. And while many of those players were genuinely game-breaking in Diamond Dynasty last year due to some quirks and glitches of two-way players, none has been quite as good this season. So the pick here is Gibson, newly and rightfully crowned as the all-time major league home run king, who will be memorable to use for his power but also for the legendary crack of his bat – something you will be reminded of on every successful swing.

Best version: 99 OVR Jin Kim Series

How to obtain: Marketplace or Ranked Rewards