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Griffey Arrives In Fine Form in 8th Inning Program
Is it late in the game to bring Ken Griffey Jr. up to par with some of the best Diamond Dynasty cards if it's done with literally the 8th Inning Program and in late September? Maybe. But that's what San Diego Studio making Griffey one of the 8th Inning Bosses did on this Friday.
This is a great Griffey card, if we're being fair: Its 111/125 Power means he'll hit tanks against all manner of pitchers and really pulverize righties, his Fielding (91 composite), Speed (86), and Arm (93/92 Strength/Accuracy) are all stellar, and the Contact — which tends to lag on even the best Griffey cards MLB The Show trots out — is at least 107/103 R/L. Hitting bombs with Griffey's sweet lefty swing is one of those transcendent video game experiences and has been for 30 years — admiring his no-doubter animation is aura farming, as the kids say, at its finest — and getting to do it with presumably the best Griffey we will get in MLB The Show 26 is a fun thing even if it's overdue.
But Griffey's not the better 8th Inning Boss. That's Roy Campanella, whose Hall of Fame Series card is bad at nothing — he even has 60 Speed! for a catcher! — and counts 104 Power against righties as his lowest hitting attribute. That this Campy can also play third base and every outfield position also makes him definitionally more versatile than Griffey, and my guess is he'll stick in far more lineups over the course of the rest of DD.
Jake Arrieta joins Griffey and Campy as the third Boss-level card, and a Finest version hailing from his 2015 Cy Young season is of course going to be a great build: His sinker-slider combo would be a powerful 1-2 even without a slurve to play off both of them, and his 125s in H/9 against lefties and Pitching Clutch are obviously going to keep PCIs small. The lack of a 100 MPH fastball is what it is.
Players will earn Arrieta at 160,000 Inning XP, and the Boss Choice Pack containing Griffey and Campanella at 275,000 XP.
8th Inning Cornerstone player Andrew McCutchen is well in line with many other Cornerstones: It's a really good card for a player whose career is ending and whose popularity is fading, but not going to change many rosters or win many games.
The 8th Inning Program is scheduled to end on Friday, October 23 — which coincides with Game 1 of the 2026 World Series.
John Donaldson, Babe Ruth Among Weekend Classic Rewards
Once again, though, there's a strong argument that the Weekend Classic player rewards coinciding with a new Inning Program far outstrip those Inning Bosses. That's what happens when those names are John Donaldson, Cal Raleigh, and Babe Ruth!
Donaldson and Raleigh are the front-staged rewards here, as they appear in the Weekend Classic Choice Pack for this iteration of the hypercompetitive online multiplayer mode that replaces Ranked through Tuesday, with Ruth serving as a leaderboard reward at higher rating bands. But they're all great: Raleigh's card is (obviously) a celebration of his 60 homers a year ago, and its switch-hitting is paid off by his 125 Power against righties and lefties; Donaldson brings his typical two-way versatility, but is a forgettable hitter and far more importantly a thrilling velo-first lefty on the mound, with Outlier on both his slider and four-seamer (but probably no Stamina glitches); Ruth is Ruth, and probably the best version of him DD will get.
Weekend Classic runs through Tuesday, September 29.
In September Spotlight Drop 3: Get Lowe
The Spotlight Program is reaching its final days as the MLB season closes. Spotlight Drop 3 for September features a bigger name — Brandon Lowe — and a player that DD has made a fan favorite in Cole Carrigg.
Lowe's the free — with XP reward path completion — card this week, and is as ever a great power-hitting reverse-split option at second base, toting 119/116 Contact/Power against lefties in his lefty bat. (His 118/97 splits against righties are fine, but really it's the pop against lefties you expect with Lowe.) What isn't standard for him is truly great defense: His Fielding Ability is a 99, meaning he'll get some of the best possible animations for a fielder, and his squirt gun arm (56 Arm Strength! Laughable!) won't be much of an issue at second or his secondary position of first.
Carrigg, though, is one of the real finds of DD this year, as a utility player who moonlights at catcher and has great Speed (90 here on this Spotlight Pack card) and switch-hitting to make all his stats matter. This version isn't quite as exciting as the one that arrived midseason as a Topps Now player and has been in and out of my lineup since, but as an updated version of the Topps Now card with better hitting attributes after a three-homer week, it's definitely a welcome hat tip to Carrigg's season and his value to DD players.
Other News and Notes
- A Finest version of Larry Walker is Chase Pack 28's featured player, and is predictably great, with 94 Power against lefties the only real knock on his 1999-vintage build. Given Walker's not-a-misprint .379 batting average from that season, though, you could also be forgiven for wanting a bit more Contact against lefties to make Parallel Mods for other attributes more viable.
- The 2026 MLB Postseason starts next week, and will be celebrated in Diamond Dynasty with a slew of Programs for each individual playoffs matchup, Prediction Vouchers in the Show Shop, and a 2026 Postseason Collection that will feature the ALCS, NLCS, and World Series MVPs as rewards. Expect that content to start rolling out on Monday, September 28 with the Vouchers, followed by a bunch of new stuff — a Retro Wild Card Program and Conquest map, among other things — on Tuesday, September 29.
