Andruw Jones, Carlos Beltrán Honored in Diamond Dynasty's Hall of Fame Program, Collection

99 OVR Andruw Jones Tops 2026 Hall of Fame Program

The two new 2026 inductees to the Baseball Hall of Fame got their due in Cooperstown on Sunday. San Diego Studio is giving them unequal due in Diamond Dynasty because it's pretty clear which of Carlos Beltrán and Andruw Jones is better in MLB The Show 26.

That would not be Jones, who is the reward at the end of the XP reward path for the 2026 Hall of Fame Program in the form of a 99 OVR card that maxes out literally all of his Fielding and marries them with 88 Speed and a near-perfect Arm (97 Strength, 95 Accuracy) to give the greatest defensive center fielder — and maybe defender — of his generation a suitably imperious defensive loadout. His hitting stats are fine, too, with 110/111 Power against righties and lefties and less impressive but still triple-digit Contact, too. With secondary eligibility in left and right field, this is a fantastic card, and it's a lock for any lineup once players grind through the Program's Missions.

Those are more labor-intensive than some in DD this year: Players can get 25 Stars from completing Beltran- and Jones-related Moments or stat missions, thumping 26 homers in Mini Seasons, and completing the Hall of Fame Conquest map, but the quickest way to do that is probably still going to require blazing through 16 Moments — eight for each player — and then picking off stat-based Missions while playing Mini Seasons or Conquest.

Those Missions are, for reference's sake:

• 2026 Parallel XP with Braves, Dodgers, Rangers, White Sox, and Yankees players (for Jones)
• 40 hits with outfielders
• 10 home runs with outfielders
• 2026 Parallel XP with Astros, Cardinals, Giants, Mets, Rangers, Royals, and Yankees players (for Beltran)
• 40 Hits with switch-hitters
• 30 stolen bases with any players

So any switch-hitting Yankees (Jasson Dominguez, Jorge Posada) or Rangers (...huh, there aren't any?) are super useful for this pursuit.

But at least the Program isn't the...

New Legends and Flashbacks Collection Featuring 99 OVR Carlos Beltrán

The latest "big" Collection in Diamond Dynasty is the other significant part of the Hall of Fame content dropping this Sunday, and it's a doozy: A Legends and Flashbacks collection requiring a CVS receipt's worth of vouchers and Collection reward players to obtain the 99 OVR Carlos Beltrán that is its lone prize.

That Beltrán is, as it probably should be, arguably Diamond Dynasty's best card: A center fielder whose 95 Speed and great defensive stats make him just about a peer to the Hall of Fame Series Jones as a defender, Beltrán has switch-hitting as the major advantage over Jones, and also skews a bit more toward Contact than Power. That he is coming in as the Met he will forever be in Cooperstown limits his ceiling a bit, as the Mets' array of Live and Legends/Flashback players leaves much to be desired, but this is as good or better than the Beltrán who served as the Live Series Collection crown jewel in MLB The Show 25, and it is endgame good.

Of course, completing the Collection to obtain him is an endgame task, too. Here is what it takes, in descending order of cards required, to obtain the component pieces of his Collection.

• World Baseball Classic: 142 cards to unlock World Baseball Classic Maikel Garcia
• Spotlight: 102 cards to unlock voucher
• Topps Now: 87 cards to unlock voucher
• All-Star Game: 60 cards to unlock All-Star Game Cody Bellinger
• Jolt: 50 cards to unlock voucher
• All-Star: 47 cards to unlock voucher
• Awards: 40 cards to unlock voucher
• The Negro Leagues: 32 cards to unlock voucher
• Cityscapes: 30 cards to unlock Cityscapes Mickey Mantle
• MLB Draft: 29 collected cards to unlock voucher
• Mural: 29 collected cards to unlock Mural Jose Ramirez
• Summer: 29 collected cards to unlock Summer Tarik Skubal
• Vintage: 27 collected cards to unlock Vintage Ketel Marte
• New Threads: 23 collected cards to unlock New Threads Bo Bichette
• Contributor: 19 cards to unlock voucher
• Breakout: 18 cards to unlock voucher
• 2nd Half Heroes: 18 cards to unlock voucher
• Egg Hunt: 18 cards to unlock voucher
• Milestone: 17 cards to unlock voucher
• Spring Breakout: 16 collected cards to unlock Spring Breakout Konnor Griffin
• Postseason: 13 cards to unlock voucher
• Veteran: 12 cards to unlock voucher
• Standout: Nine cards to unlock voucher
• St. Patrick's Day: Eight cards to unlock voucher
• Home Run Derby: Seven cards to unlock voucher
• Rookie: Seven cards to unlock voucher
• Cornerstone: Five cards to unlock voucher
• Last Ride: Two cards to unlock voucher
• Prime: Two cards to unlock voucher
• Finest: Two cards to unlock voucher
• Signature: Two cards to unlock voucher

Players will need 30 total vouchers and lockable players available from those Collections, meaning that any four of them are superfluous, and that players technically don't have to have touched any of the four Collections offering new vouchers/players this go-round — the All-Star Game, Home Run Derby, and MLB Draft ones, but also Finest — to nab Beltrán . But chopping off even the four most needy of these Collections still tasks players with acquiring hundreds of cards.

(And, yes, again conspicously absent from the Collections necessary for the endgame card here is the Jackie Robinson Day Collection, whose Jackie Robinson card does not have a slot in any Legends and Flashbacks Collection. At this point, it feels like a thumb in the eye.)

There is plenty of content accessible to DD players to make the Stubs and earn the cards necessary to get this best Beltrán in their lineups. But for the second straight year in Diamond Dynasty, the best Beltrán is a card players cannot buy directly and must unlock. That feels like a miss.

While this is probably not the last massive Collection in MLB The Show 26, the hint of another that had been available previously via the voucher track in the Jolt Series Collection is not there at this time. We'll have to see what may yet come.

Other News and Notes

• The Hall of Fame-related content for this Program consists of a Conquest map that has a slew of packs and a slightly more compact design than some and a Mini Seasons that offers three Ultra Packs for various goals within it. One of those goals is also perhaps the only hint that Jeff Kent, who does not appear in Diamond Dynasty but is a new Hall of Famer, was inducted this weekend: 750 Parallel XP with primary-position second basemen will yield two Headliners Packs.
• The Hall of Fame Event that has a 99 OVR Hall of Fame Series Trevor Hoffman among its rewards is available until Friday, July 31st — when the 6th Inning and a new Weekend Classic both arrive.
• The next new Program in DD that isn't the Cornerstone Program set to accompany the 6th Inning is scheduled for August 3rd — a Monday, which is very unusual as a content drop day for San Diego Studio.