Team Affinity Neon Series, Shark Conquest Map Surface in Diamond Dynasty

The fourth major Team Affinity drop in Diamond Dynasty for MLB The Show 25 comes near the end of the summer, and with 30 99 OVR cards, one for each MLB team. Apart from the welcome maxed-out OVRs, the player selection for the Neon series is also a step up for Team Affinity, which has been somewhat hamstrung by a scattershot release pattern that featured the Jolt series at the year's outset, a seemingly unplanned pre-All-Star Color Storm series, and locked-in All-Star and Finest tie-ins that were scheduled from the game's full debut.

But this is an assemblage of some of the most exciting players of past, present, and future for each franchise, from touted prospects like the trio of NL Central shortstops Jesús Made, Konnor Griffin, and JJ Wetherholt to potential stars getting their feet wet like Royals first baseman Jac Caglianone and Marlins hurler Eury Peréz to full-fledged legends like Adrian Beltre, Willie Mays, and Rafael Palmeiro. Players will earn the program XP to unlock these cards on a team-by-team basis again, with the Neon series mimicking the structure of the Color Storm series with standalone XP reward paths that require a combination of completion of a single moment, stat missions, and new Parallel XP missions for full progress. But the inclusion of those Parallel XP missions makes it easier than ever to race through the program with just a team's pitchers or hitters, allowing for rapid XP accrual by stocking a lineup with one squad's hitters and the pitching staff with another team's throwers.

This being a program in Diamond Dynasty in MLB The Show 25, there is also, of course, a collection for the Neon series -- but it's better than almost all of the preceding collections simply by virtue of all of these cards being free via grind, and the rewards within it are quite enticing. For collecting 15 Neon series cards, players will net Mets ace Al Leiter; for 23, the unlock is Yankees legend Lou Gehrig; for all 30 from each team plus Leiter and Gehrig, it's Pirates switch-hitting demigod Bryan Reynolds, who would seem like a slightly lesser light in the history of actual baseball than Leiter or Gehrig, but is a known problem in DD and has triple-digit stats in every Contact and Power category, along with 125 Batting Clutch, fine defensive numbers, and 86 Speed -- along with positional eligibility anywhere in the outfield. Leiter is a menace of a finesse lefty and Gehrig is probably the best hitter at first base in all of Diamond Dynasty, but Reynolds does deserve to be the centerpiece here.

And with Diamond Dynasty now competing with not just College Football 26 and Madden 26 but the just-released NBA 2K26 for precious screen time among sports gamers, this is an strong chunk of content -- with sensational art to match -- for folks still interested in the virtual boys of summer to content themselves with.

Team Affinity Neon Series Players by Division and Team

AL East

Toronto Blue Jays: RF Shawn Green
Baltimore Orioles: C Adley Rutschman
Tampa Bay Rays: CF Chandler Simpson
Boston Red Sox: 3B Marcelo Mayer
New York Yankees: SS Derek Jeter

AL Central

Cleveland Guardians: 2B Travis Bazzana
Kansas City Royals: RF Jac Caglianone
Detroit Tigers: SS Kyle McGonigle
Minnesota Twins: CF Walker Jenkins
Chicago White Sox: C Kyle Teel

AL West

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim: C Logan O'Hoppe
Houston Astros: 1B Lance Berkman
Oakland Athletics: LF Tyler Soderstrom
Seattle Mariners: SS Colt Emerson
Texas Rangers: 1B Rafael Palmeiro

NL East

Atlanta Braves: 2B Ozzie Albies
Miami Marlins: SP Eury Peréz
New York Mets: RF Curtis Granderson
Washington Nationals: SP Jordan Zimmermann
Philadelphia Phillies: RF Bobby Abreu

NL Central

Milwaukee Brewers: SS Jesús Made
St. Louis Cardinals: SS JJ Wetherholt
Chicago Cubs: 1B Anthony Rizzo
Pittsburgh Pirates: SS Konnor Griffin
Cincinnati Reds: SP Hunter Greene

NL West

Arizona Diamondbacks: SS Geraldo Perdomo
Los Angeles Dodgers: 3B Adrián Beltré
San Francisco Giants: CF Willie Mays
San Diego Padres: CF Jackson Merrill
Colorado Rockies: 1B Charlie Condon

Shark Conquest Map Returns with J.T. Realmuto as Catch

If there's one consistently great piece of content in Diamond Dynasty each year, it's the vaunted and valuable Shark Conquest map, which is ... well, a Conquest map in the shape of a shark, but is also notorious for its superb rewards, hidden and otherwise. And this year's, released this Friday, is no different, with a 99 OVR version of Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto as the ultimate reward for completion.

Realmuto is not having his best season in reality in 2025, with a .271 average but just 11 homers and a painfully average 100 OPS+ coming into Friday. But when he was a fringe MVP candidate in years past, and when he hit for the cycle in 2023, he did so by blending uncommon speed for a catcher with a hit tool that works from both sides -- so a DD card with triple-digit Contact and Power (104/100 against righties, 117/116 against lefties, plus 118 Batting Clutch) from both sides of the plate and 91 Speed is a fantastic free card to have for just completing a Conquest map with seven strongholds that should take little over an hour for most players to storm.

The Shark map also has an Ultra Choice pack, a Signature Choice pack, an 85+ Live series pack, a Home Run Derby Choice pack, two Deluxe packs, and a Ballin' is a Habit pack among its stated goal prizes, and a smattering of Headliners, Ballin', and five-piece Show packs among its hidden rewards, so it's fair to consider this an influx of packs that is going to shift the market downward for as long as the supply of those rarer cards is elevated.

Other News and Notes

Chase Pack 23's featured player is a Hall of Fame series 99 OVR Rollie Fingers that is maybe the best reliever without a 100 MPH fastball. His lower HR/9 -- which is largely irrelevant in Diamond Dynasty -- being his only pitching attribute under 100 is yet another sign that we are well and truly in the endgame when it comes to relievers in DD.
August's Spotlight program's Drop 4 may have been limited to a degree by the design of the Neon series, but that doesn't prevent it from being an exciting release in its own right, with Pirates prospect Bubba Chandler and Orioles prospect Samuel Basallo getting top-tier Topps Now cards for their MLB debuts and Royals fan favorite Vinnie Pasquantino getting a 99 OVR for a five-game homer streak. And the pack players might be even better than that on brand name, with Brady Singer and Giancarlo Stanton -- who has been hilariously hot for the past few weeks. raising his OPS by almost 200 points since the beginning of August -- taking the 99 OVR spots.
A new Diamond Quest with a "Coastal" theme that requires players mostly from the AL and NL East -- but not the Braves or the Blue Jays, but also the California teams minus the A's and the Mariners; this all makes it complicated to build a team manually, which players must do in Diamond Quest -- has 99 OVRs of Don Sutton and Troy Glaus as rewards. If the barrier to entry of building a specific team remains as high as it was with the "Expansion Era" DQ that has resulted in a slightly inflated price for the J.R. Richard that was a prize of that challenge, it might be worth farming Sutton and Glaus for Stubs.
Next week's content includes Drop 2s for both the 7th Inning XP reward path and Multiplayer program and a new Conquest map on Tuesday, September 2, but more importantly the August Lightning and Retro Lightning players on Friday, September 5 -- with the Retro Lightning player is teased as a player with a four-letter first name and a seven-letter surname. While Mark McGwire fits, he just got a 99 and his August 1998 wasn't his best month of that season; Ryan Ludwick also fits, and had a fine August in 2008, but would certainly be a letdown after Ken Griffey Jr. was the Retro Lightning player for July. So maybe the starred-out name is actually a nickname, much like "The Kid" stood in for Griffey in the July tease?
There's also a new Mini Seasons coming on Friday, which I'm sure is tremendously exciting for the three of you who play Mini Seasons religiously.