2nd Inning Arrives in Diamond Dynasty with Babe Ruth, Randy Johnson

2nd Inning Brings Red Sox Hall of Famers, Babe, and Randy to Diamond Dynasty

The XP reward path once again has two Bosses, one Boss-level card, and one other "henchman" at a lower OVR; this time at bat, that's a 91 OVR Rick Ferrell at 140,000 XP, a 92 OVR Bobby Doerr at 275,000 XP, and an option of 92 OVR Babe Ruth — a primary left fielder in this iteration — or Randy Johnson in the Boss Choice Pack earnable at the 500,000-XP final tier of the XP reward path. Those figures match the 1st Inning's bars for the corresponding rewards.

Ferrell's card is a frankly forgettable one for a Hall of Famer, low on Power and more good than great as a defensive catcher, but he also got in via the Veterans Committee in 1984 and more on acclaim than an assessment under a modern sabermetric lens, so it's not as if he's being inaccurately represented. Doerr, on the other hand, was one of the more consistently outstanding pre-integration second basemen in MLB history, and while his lack of singular outstanding seasons hampers DD's designers in giving him a truly great card, what they cooked up does rival Ruth and Johnson as a "Boss-adjacent" player, given that Doerr has all of the Contact, Power, and Fielding skills to be a top second baseman in the mode for at least a month or two.

Ruth and Johnson are perennially among the most coveted cards regardless of the form in which they reach Diamond Dynasty, and these will be no different, with Ruth instantly being one of the best bats in the game and Johnson slotting in as assuredly the best left-handed starter and probably the best starter overall. While obtaining either one for this weekend's Weekend Classic would seem to be at least very difficult if not actually impossible, count on both to be mainstays of the DD metagame going forward.

The Cornerstone program for the 2nd Inning features Carlos Correa, and specifically holds a 91 OVR Astros-livery version of him at the end of the XP reward path. That Correa is far more of a solid option at shortstop than a game-breaker, but it's a free card from a program laden with 25,000 Inning XP that can be earned swiftly and easily, so there's nothing to complain about there.

The rest of the XP reward path has over 20 Packs — The Show, Ballin' is a Habit, Headliners, a New Threads Deluxe Pack, and plenty of WBC Packs intended to make that Collection a bit easier to complete — and the towering sum of ... 7,750 Stubs.

Weekend Classic Arrives to Test Skills, With Victor Martinez

Weekend Classic, styled as the "most competitive" and "highest-leverage" multiplayer mode in Diamond Dynasty, is making its MLB The Show 26 debut this weekend, holding "the best rewards in Diamond Dynasty" as the carrot to partake in some of the sweatiest games you'll play all year.

The first six games of Weekend Classic govern most of the rewards available in the mode, with better cumulative rewards granted at each win and those scaling to, at many levels, a Weekend Classic Choice Pack that contains 92 OVR 2nd Half Heroes Series Bernie Williams and Postseason Series Victor Martinez cards. At higher tiers, those rewards then jump to 90+ Live Series Diamond Packs — new for the 2nd Inning — and 250,000 Stubs for 6-0 performances at the 900-999 and 1000+ Ranked rating tiers, known as Legend and Immortal, respectively. Leaderboards for all of the various divisions (based on Ranked rating) and the respective pools within them (randomly determined smaller groups) also have rewards for the top 10 finishers.

As player rewards go, both Williams and Martinez are likely to be more nice-to-have than need-this-now. Williams is a Contact-first switch-hitting option in center field who sacrifices some defensive acumen for his bat, and has been a fixture in recent years of Diamond Dynasty. Martinez, on the other hand, comes to DD as a Legend player for the first time since his last MLB game in 2018, and as a switch-hitting catcher who profiles a lot like Williams's longtime Yankees teammate Jorge Posada — a name thus far absent from DD in MLB The Show 26.

This first Weekend Classic runs from 3 p.m. Eastern/noon Pacific on Friday, April 10 through 3 p.m. Eastern/noon Pacific on Tuesday, April 14.

April Spotlight Returns with Jo Adell on Top

Unquestionably, one of the most memorable performances of the early season in MLB action in real life was Angels right fielder Jo Adell's instantly legendary triple home run robbery against the Mariners last week — and, deservingly, Adell gets saluted in April Spotlight Drop 2, with a 91 OVR card at the end of the XP reward path for Drop 2. Unsurprisingly, his card is a superb defender when it comes to Fielding stats that determine his jump on the ball, but 66 Speed will limit its ability to track down the toughest ones in game. 94/102 Power against righties and lefties respectively makes up for that, though.

91 OVR Sandy Alcantara and Sal Stewart are the top cards in the April Spotlight Drop 2 Pack — with Alcantara's card checking in at 1 OVR lower than his currently Supercharged Live Series card — and as the players that will go into April's Retro Lightning Collection when it becomes available. The former has a formidable five-pitch arsenal of mostly breaking stuff reflecting his seeming return to Cy Young contender form, and notably boasts 104 Stamina to reflect him recording the first complete game of the 2026 MLB season; the latter is a well-rounded and thus unspectacular option at first base.

The Missions for April Spotlight Drop 2 ask for stats from outfielders and pitchers, and Parallel XP from Topps Now and Spotlight players.

Other News and Notes

• The new April Showers Conquest map brings some of the better rewards for any single-player action in DD so far, with a 90 OVR Topps Now Ryan Weathers and one copy of the Bullpen Bash 1 Pack that features higher-OVR relievers arrived in the Shop with little fanfare earlier this week and bolsters one of the weaker player pools in the game.
• 93 OVR Awards Series Cody Bellinger stars in the new Chase Pack 4 as one of Diamond Dynasty's best left-handed hitters. He's a really good left-handed hitter, and possesses a swing in MLB The Show that many love. That's about it.
• The Egg Hunt Missions tied to the 1st Inning XP reward path recur in the 2nd Inning XP reward path, so the Egg Hunt Program remains as completable as it was prior to Friday's reset.
• With some giggles and smirks, the SDS stream team suggested strongly that the Retro Lightning player earned through the Collection of April Spotlight Drop Pack players in May is already chosen, which is an interesting peek into the DD live team's process. If that player, one of the best we'll see in May, is set in stone as of April 10, it feels incumbent to design around that card, rather than using the flexibility granted by being able to pick any legendary player's stellar April to honor while also reflecting the best MLB performance from reality in April 2026. We'll see if that happens.
• There is no new Team Affinity content tied to the 2nd Inning. Womp, womp.