3rd Inning Brings Juan Soto, Francisco Lindor, First Attributes Update to Diamond Dynasty

The 3rd Inning Program that replaced the 2nd Inning this Friday has a distinctly Subway Series theme, headlined by its 95 OVR Bosses: Mets keystone Francisco Lindor and a Yankees-flavored version of Juan Soto. (Whether those players are particularly beloved by fans of the teams whose uniforms they are donning is ... another story.)

Lindor is, as ever, a great option at shortstop thanks to his switch-hitting, sweet swing, and excellent defense — which, to be fair, are all based on the 2023 season this card is tied to, not the miserable campaign he is having in 2026 — and comes in with gorgeous orange-tinted lighting on his Awards Series card. Soto's card art is less aesthetically appealing, and his card isn't quite the conquering lefty bat that the best Soto cards generally are, but his 112 Batting Clutch should make him an RBI machine.

The "changes" touted for the 3rd Inning Program are going to feel minimal at first, with some slightly better Pack rewards on the way up to the Bosses — Jackie Robinson Day, Egg Hunt, Cityscapes, and 85+ OVR Live Series Packs are all available on the ladder — but a 20 percent decrease for the Boss Pack level from 500,000 XP to 400,000 XP should make it easier to attain Lindor and Soto, and will also in turn churn more of the wheel-spin content that comes after the structured XP reward path. A 93 OVR Carlos Delgado is the first XP reward path player, available at 57,500 XP, with the 94 OVR Corbin Burnes at 220,000 XP coming in as a Boss-level player. Whether his killer sinker-slider combo makes him a player on par with Lindor and Soto

The 3rd Inning's Cornerstone Program player is Royals catcher Salvador Perez, who arrives as a well-rounded catcher with few weaknesses but no outrageous strengths. As usual, the Program itself is a very simple, largely Moments-based affair, intended to be done in an hour or so, and carries 20,000 Inning XP for full completion.

First Ratings Roster Update Tweaks Nearly 800 Players, Brings Three New Diamonds

The long-awaited first attributes-centric roster update in Diamond Dynasty has also arrived this Friday, with tweaks to the Live Series of cards numbering "more than 770," per Friday's live stream. Among the most notable are upward revisions that netted 13 new Golds and three new Diamonds — the latter being Cubs right fielder Seiya Suzuki, Dodgers center fielder Andy Pages, and Phillies lefty Cristopher Sánchez.

Those players who have stockpiled Live Series cards for investment purposes are likely to have made the most bank on Pages, who jumped from 82 OVR to 85 OVR, but any gains relative to the market — in a manner of speaking — may be wiped out by the bumps that Shohei Ohtani (up two ticks to 94 OVR), Aaron Judge (now 93 OVR after a single-point upgrade) and Mason Miller (+2 to 91 OVR) have all gotten, which may make them both even more coveted and even harder to pull.

And the sweeping pass of the Live Series has also done some damage to Diamond-level players barely holding on to that status. Former World Series MVPs Corey Seager and Freddie Freeman are each down to 86 OVR, as are offseason acquisitions Garrett Crochet and Kyle Tucker — Seager and Crochet both forfeited three points of OVR — and former MLB The Show cover athletes Ronald Acuña Jr. and Gunnar Henderson are down from 87 OVR to 85 OVR after slow starts, Acuña's costing him points in all six batting categories. (Of course, a cynic could note that anyone using the Live Series versions of those particular cards in May is a sucker: There are better versions of both in the World Baseball Classic Series.)

Future rating updates are planned for "about every month, give or take."

Second Weekend Classic for MLB The Show 26 Rewards Alvarez, Posada

Returning for May, the end of the Multiplayer 2 Program, and the transition to the 3rd Inning is Weekend Classic, the ultra-competitive limited-time online multiplayer mode that is meant to have the toughest games and best rewards in all of Diamond Dynasty. This weekend's edition will run through Tuesday, May 12.

The signature rewards for players who stack wins in this Weekend Classic include a Weekend Classic Rewind Pack with Victor Martinez and Bernie Williams — rewards from the first Weekend Classic — Chase Packs, and other cards that check in at higher OVRs, but the big fish are a 94 OVR Postseason Series Yordan Alvarez and a 94 OVR Awards Series Jorge Posada making his MLB The Show 26 Diamond Dynasty debut. Both are about what you'd expect: Alvarez is a left-handed menace who is probably best as an overqualified designated hitter, and Posada is an exceptional offensive catcher with switch-hitting and a nice mixture of contact skills and pop as his standout qualities.

The lowest level where players can get both Alvarez and Posada from packs is Silver II, where a 6-0 run in the first six games at nets both a single one-choice Weekend Classic Pack (at five wins) and a Weekend Classic Pack that allows players to choose both of those items. At Diamond (900-999 Ranked rating), six wins earns a 91+ OVR Live Series Pack, which should incrementally bump the supply of those Shohei Ohtani-tier players that are astronomically expensive at present.

May Spotlight Drop 1 Headlined by Mickey Moniak, Christian Walker, Sean Burke

Just three days after the final April Spotlight Drop, the first May Spotlight Drop comes with a few new players of the week that was in MLB action. Angels outfielder Mickey Moniak is the 93 OVR prize at the end of the XP reward path, while White Sox reliever Sean Burke and Astros hitter Christian Walker are the 93 OVR Rare round Pack players.

The first Spotlight Drops immediately after Lightning players are released are notoriously underwhelming, historically, and Walker being doubly duplicative of Matt Olson and Ben Rice is especially bad. But Burke does at least boast an interesting pitch mix, with a knuckle-curve, slider, sinker, and cutter in his breaking arsenal, and the Drew Romo on the Drop 1 XP reward path adds to the growing pool of viable switch-hitting catchers in DD.

Bobby Witt Jr. Takeover Program Qualifies as Nice Surprise

This week's surprising — if not baffling — bonus Program came on Thursday in the form of the Bobby Witt Jr. Takeover Program, which coincides with the game's icon now featuring the Royals superstar on digital storefronts. Whether this qualifies him as a true cover athlete or not is a debate others can have, but his Program bringing a total of 20,000 Inning XP, a 93 OVR Cover Athletes Series BWJ that is now the high floor for shortstops in Diamond Dynasty, and a free random Deluxe Pack for brainless Mission completion makes it welcome and worth expecting as an eve-of-Inning feature going forward.

The Mission structure is also interesting enough to be worth calling out: Each of the five Missions that rewards 10 Stars each in a second subsection of the Program can only be completed after the previous one is unlocked, meaning that players have to tally 15 hits, then score 11 runs, then hit three homers, and so forth. This sequenced structure isn't particularly annoying here, but it does serve as proof of concept for what could be longer chains of stair-step Missions in a similar fashion, something that could be put to good and creative use.

Other News and Notes

A 95 OVR Ken Griffey Jr. is Chase Pack 9's ultimate reward, and the first Red Diamond of the Chase Pack progression in Diamond Dynasty. That he does not have a single attribute over 101 out of the box maybe dulls a little of his shine, but, also: It's a 95 OVR Griffey.
A new Mother's Day Conquest map is now available in game. The map spells out "Mom" and many of the rewards are cosmetics honoring the day, which comes this Sunday. Cute. But the really good reward is the April Spotlight Player Pack that should provide a card necessary for the April Retro Lightning Collection that yields Chipper Jones. (Sorry to the 92 OVR Javier Baez)
New Ranked Season and Multiplayer 3 Programs arrive in tandem on Tuesday, and the sincerely exciting big change there is that a post-XP reward path wheel of random rewards that now enables endless grinding for rewards through online play. While the non-Diamond rewards are not particularly thrilling, those highest-tier rewards are a 50-Pack bundle — with the Chase Pack those all contain — and 25,000 Stubs, very nice for grinders. The end reward for the Multiplayer 3 Program will also have some appeal: It's a 94 OVR Bryce Harper from his time as a right fielder early in his tenure with the Phillies.
A new card Series will arrive next Friday and be detailed on another stream of The Show LIVE.