Five Things I Want In MLB The Show 25

I have no shame, which is why I’m eager to wax poetic about new features and shiny new toys in MLB The Show 25. We know we’re getting the first gameplay trailer on February 4, but that won’t stop me from talking about five things I want to see in MLB The Show 25.

1. Fully Revitalized and Revamped Franchise Mode

I might be a certified Diamond Dynasty addict, but my love of deep franchise modes has never wavered. Truthfully, I always rejected the notion of “ultimate team” modes because I was always a Franchise-Freak. Of course, once I started playing DD I became hooked because it’s a ton of fun. But so is a deep Franchise mode.

It’s a shame that Franchise in MLB The Show has always felt exactly the same as it did when I was a teenager. I’m 34 now, boomer to many that might read this, but still young enough to dream that the good ole days are always around the corner. I haven’t been able to spend invested time in The Show’s Franchise mode for a while now. I purchased a PS4 Pro back in 2017 explicitly to play The Show, only to become dismayed that nothing really felt innovative from the last iteration I played.

Fast forward to 2025 and I’ve been having a blast with NBA 2K25’s incredibly deep MyNBA mode. Sure, like anything, you can find faults and cracks to lament. But I absolutely love the depth of the mode, including the ability to create an expansion team and do a full expansion draft. This was something we could do in All-Star Baseball 2005. The best The Show has done in recent years was allow us to create our own uniforms. Remember when this was a selling point a few years ago, except your “expansion or relocated team” was relegated to playing in already established MLB stadiums with no ability to remove the signage and logos?

Yeah, we’re long overdue. Don’t get me wrong; I’m an idiot and have no idea how to make video games. I’m not saying it’s easy to bring this to life, I’m simply saying it’s time for a huge evolution of Franchise in MLB The Show.

2. Revamped Road to the Show

This almost feels like a foregone conclusion based off the LSU logo and early listing descriptions. Still, this is something many of us have wanted to see for a while. Again, I refer to 2K because there’s a structure there that The Show could innovate on. No, I’m not saying I want to be forced to spend real money to level up a fake baseball man. Microtransaction practices are the norm and have been, so I accept that reality, but there’s a huge amount of room for SDS to do their thing and make a better version.

The cover itself highlighting each cover athlete’s respective journeys to the MLB paints a very optimistic picture that we’ll actually get a revamped RTTS in MLB The Show 25.

3. Fully Revamped Diamond Dynasty

This pattern of calling for revamps isn’t laziness; it’s an observation that MLB The Show has been stale for many years now. Even Diamond Dynasty hasn’t received truly innovative refreshes. All online multiplayer modes still operate within the same framework they have for years. The offline modes still lack any true longform incentive for offline-focused players. Playing Co-Op had flashes of brilliance, but limitations in teambuilding made it feel silly that we had to run a bunch of random Gold cards when we had fully stocked binders of elite cards. There’s a lot of deeper-seated staleness as well:

• Stadium elevation affecting gameplay needs to go. Let us enjoy stadiums for their aesthetics and unique dimensions without worrying about pop-ups going 475 feet.
• Add player or position lock for Diamond Dynasty. Especially if fielding quick-time events are becoming a thing, it would bring immersion to a whole new level.
• Real MLB managers and coaches. At the very least, give us the option to edit generic ones. It’s jarring having a different manager in my DD-dugout every time I play a new game. Who am I, George Steinbrenner?
• More game modes. Full-stop. Give us legitimate reasons to play full 9-inning games against the CPU. Give us more ways to use our actual collections.
• Full CPU stat-tracking in offline modes. I want to see a cumulative tracking of the CPU’s stats against me.
• Card aesthetics. Yes, I’d pay to alter the card art with frames, animations, and other cool shit. FIGHT ME. Of course, we should be able to earn these as well. It would also be a really cool bonus for competitive players to show off without holding certain cards hostage behind competitive paywalls.

I could go on for hours on each of these subjects. These are just some of the things I’d like to see in Diamond Dynasty.

4. More Mid-Tier Legends

We all want Barry Bonds. We all want all the big name legends. But there’s a litany, a literal treasure trove of really good players that would add so much depth to the legend pool. Again, we have to acknowledge that SDS can’t just snap their fingers and get a legend in the game because dummies like me write articles about it. Give us the big names, but there’s a lot of other dudes that would be a blast, too. Guys like Lance Berkman and Mark Teixeira come to mind immediately, but there’s just too many to name. The point isn’t the specific guys, it’s the need for “lower-tier” legends as well.

I’ve been advocating for years to have a “Gold and Below” competitive league that runs all year. As Live Series cards get upgraded and downgraded, it would add a dynamic element to the player pool. It would also be an amazing way to get other legends in the game, or alternate versions of established players. Not only this, but a Salary Cap mode would have such dynamic roster-building that you could add anyone from the history of MLB and they’d have a legitimate use.

5. Please Remove “Your Opponent’s Controller Is Unplugged Do You Want To Forfeit”

It’s incredibly dumb.

Those are five things I want to see in MLB The Show 25. What about you? Let us know in the comments!