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The legend reveal for MLB The Show 26 is here, and it brings a slew of legendary names and some distinct AL East bias.
15 New Legends Announced for MLB The Show 26
Monday's trailer, entitled "New Legends from Every Era in MLB The Show 26," labels 15 players as "new legends" for this year's iteration of Sony San Diego's baseball simulation. Here they are, listed alphabetically rather than by order of appearance.
- Jeromy Burnitz
- Roy Campanella
- Jeff Conine
- Felix Hernandez
- Mamie "Peanut" Johnson
- Andruw Jones
- John Henry "Pop" Lloyd
- Fred Lynn
- Graig Nettles
- Dustin Pedroia
- Albert Pujols
- Phil Rizzuto
- Dave Roberts
- Red Schoendienst
- George "Mule" Suttles
The trailer also depicts Hank Aaron, Roberto Clemente, Ken Griffey, Jr., Randy Johnson,, and Mickey Mantle, confirming five of the most familiar and fantastic baseball players in history as returning playable Legends that would have been sorely missed if they did not appear in MLB The Show 26.
The list is a fairly good one, given that we can reasonably assume most of the legendary names and faces in MLB The Show 25 will return, and already knew about Campanella, Hernandez, and Pujols being added this year because of other trailers. Getting Jones back in MLB The Show in the year he goes into the Hall of Fame is good work, and adding even more Negro Leaguers whose stories will surely be told well in the superlative Storylines mode is always good.
But if there's a bit of a theme in this list, it's that fully a third of it consists of Red Sox (Lynn, Pedroia, and Roberts) and Yankees (Nettles and Rizzuto) icons, which are adding to long lists of players from both franchises that appear in MLB The Show. Adding Burnitz and Conine does bolster the meager Brewers and Marlins all-time rosters with exciting new names, but those teams' lists of legends — like most — still pale in comparison to those for the AL East's primordial rivals, who really did not need more legends added.
Trailer Easter Eggs and the Franchise Head-Fake
Looking for Easter eggs or hints at other players on this year's legends roster in the trailer? Well, Schoendienst's appearance in the trailer comes as he is making a catch in front of the St. Louis Cardinals' wall of retired numbers, which has nine names and faces as depicted in MLB The Show 25 but 14 names in reality, and Schoendienst is part of it in MLB The Show 25 — along with Ozzie Smith, Stan Musial, Tony La Russa, Lou Brock, Whitey Herzog, Jackie Robinson, Bruce Sutter, and Bob Gibson — so its appearance is probably more of a flex of having Schoendienst in the game than stealth confirmation of any other Cardinals being added, as Dizzy Dean and Enos Slaughter, two of the missing men, would certainly be big enough names to add.
Furthermore, Randy Johnson delivering a pitch against the backdrop of T-Mobile Field's scoreboard is almost impossible to read as anything other than an effort to make players look directly at that scoreboard for the batter's identity — but good luck identifying the player at the plate as anyone other than someone wearing No. 12 and a blue hat with a red logo. That description could point to either of the two players in MLB history who have had a No. 12 retired, but it would not seem to point to Wade Boggs, who had No. 12 retired by the Tampa Bay Rays and wore No. 26 with the Boston Red Sox, the team with the blue hat and red logo that you could squint and see, and it would be something of a shock to see Roberto Alomar in MLB The Show, as his number was unretired by the Toronto Blue Jays after a sexual assault allegation in 2021.
But the most exciting bit of the trailer for some might not be a new name but other text connected to Legends in MLB The Show 26 — specifically, the bit that says:
Play as baseball's greatest legends in Diamond Dynasty, Home Run Derby, Storylines, and Franchise.
While licensed legends have obviously been in Diamond Dynasty since the card-collecting mode's inception and Storylines has been built around legendary players from both MLB and the Negro Leagues, the presence of legends in both Home Run Derby has been part of MLB The Show games, but quietly: Players can pick competitors from any of the three Sony San Diego-curated teams with legends on their rosters — the Beasts, Boomers, and Groundbreakers — also available for Classic Exhibition mode play from the game's main menu.
Legends in Franchise? That sounds new and exciting.
The unfortunate truth thing is that it technically isn't. Players of MLB The Show 25 can use legendary players in Franchise mode, too. It's just that they can only be introduced at the outset of any Franchise through a fantasy draft, with their ages tied to specific seasons. (Good luck getting 58-year-old Satchel Paige or 42-year-old Trevor Hoffman to stick around for more than a season!)
While mentioning that legends are playable in Franchise might induce dizzy dreams of suddenly being able to pursue Willie Mays in free agency or, even better, play era-specific Franchises like the NBA 2K series allows in its MyNBA mode, including this information in a trailer a week after premiering changes to Franchise would be frankly bizarre.
But Wait: There Will Likely Be More
Still, it is rather likely that this is not the complete list of legends added to MLB The Show 26, as Sony San Diego generally holds a few names close to the vest for reveals along with Diamond Dynasty and/or live content streams, as it did with the revelation of Carlos Beltran as the Live Series collection reward in MLB The Show 25. While forecasting a new name on par with Pujols — who could well be that Live Series collection reward, or could be the reward for completing either the American League or National League components of it, given his career being split between a dominant tenure with the Cardinals and a ... well, not as dominant one with the Angels — would be difficult, the chances are good there's still at least one more name that will raise eyebrows to be announced.
