Every new season brings the usual new XP Reward Path and Team Affinity content. That doesn’t mean the typical weekly content stops, however. The latest Diamond Duos set drops and a jaw-dropping new Chase Pack is available featuring one of the very best cards in the game.

MLB The Show 23 Diamond Duos 34, Chase Pack 7 and Retirement Pack/Bundle

*Please note that at time of writing, the Set 4 collection cards were not available in the database. Meta Overall rankings discussed here are subject to change slightly*

MLB The Show 23 Diamond Duos 34

SP Snapshot Nester Cortes Jr. (New York Yankees)

Meta Overall rating: 103.84 – #10 SP

Nasty Nestor gets a fun 99 overall with this Snapshot version. Not only is Cortes rocking some serious drip in the card art, but the attributes on this card aren’t too shabby themselves. Nestor gets 116 H/9, 101 K/9, 106 BB/9 and 108 Clutch which gives him a solid base of face-value attributes. Beyond the attributes, Cortes features a 4-Seamer at 93 MPH with 99 Control, a Cutter at 88 MPH with 98 Control and 99 Break, a Slurve at 77 MPH with 95 Control and 90 Break, a Circle-Change at 82 MPH with 90 Control and 86 Break and a Sinker at 92 MPH with 87 Control and 72 Break.

He’s called Nasty Nestor for a reason. With superb control on his top-4 pitches, Cortes should be pretty easy to pitch with alongside that 106 BB/9. Locating with really good break is a surefire way for pitchers to stand out in Diamond Dynasty. The Sinker isn’t going to do much, but it does provide a fifth level of speed differential. That’s one really cool detail about this Cortes card – five unique speeds! There’s an 11 MPH separation from the Cutter and Slurve, which means you have two pitches breaking the same direction with a substantial speed differential. The 4-Seamer at 93 MPH won’t blow anyone away on its own, but if you’re sequencing and locating with the entire arsenal then that 93 will look a lot faster.

Snapshot Cortes Jr. currently ranks as the 10th best SP in the game and I think this card can actually play as one of the very best cards on the higher levels.

CF Future Stars Druw Jones (Arizona Diamondbacks)

Meta Overall rating: 104.93 – #9 CF

Son of should-be-Hall of Famer Andruw Jones, Druw Jones was the 2nd overall pick in the 2022 MLB draft. Featuring a skillset similar to his father, Druw Jones brings 100+ Contact and Power against both sides with elite Speed and Fielding to boot.

108 CON L, 100 CON R, 115 POW L, 106 POW R and 106 Clutch are solid enough already. Jones possesses 97 Fielding, 99 Arm Strength, 92 Accuracy and 95 Reaction along with 99 Speed and 95 Stealing to make him an all-around threat on the field. I talk it about it every single time an OF is released – there’s so damn many you can’t go wrong. But this is a really good Future Stars card and a fun combination of skills to throw into your lineup from time to time. D’Backs fans can rejoice while building their theme teams and those looking for a new name to try have a great choice here.

MLB The Show 23 Chase Pack 7

CF Milestone Mike Trout (Los Angeles Angels)

Meta Overall rating: 114.74 – #2 CF, #5 overall card

It was only a matter of time before we got another 99 overall Mike Trout. The WBC version that launched with the game was, predictably, a fan-favorite card to use and part of the initial launch excitement. Seriously, how cool was it that there was a 99 overall Mike Trout available at launch? I thought it was great as I’ve enjoyed the Sets and Seasons format for the most part, despite the fact that I never even owned that Trout.

Well – there’s a really good chance I won’t own this one either but it doesn’t change the fact that this is one of the very best cards in the game. It’s also arguably the best Trout we’ve ever seen, with the attributes buoyed by 99 Speed and Stealing.

This is the definition of an elite card. Unlike a lot of the cards shown during the Season 4 content stream (which we’ll talk about in a future post), this Trout is actually an elite card. You can nitpick it with the 90 Fielding and 87 Reaction, but I’d rather just enjoy the fact that I’ll be hitting moonshots and blasting lasers into the gaps for extra bases with the 99 Speed. This is a stupidly good card that will most likely be one of the most expensive cards all year. Trout is immensely popular and having the best version land as one of the best cards in the game, essentially locked behind a paywall? Yeah, get those Stubs ready.

MLB The Show 23 Number Retirement Pack and Bundle

Finally, the Number Retirement Choice Pack is back in the Show Shop for some reason. These are Set 3 cards so they’re still legal in Ranked but it’s a bit baffling to me that they’re available again. If you feel like wasting Stubs, you can buy up to three of these packs again. The Rare round (Roy Halladay, Craig Biggio and Duke Snider) are still fairly expensive while the Base round has dropped closer to quick-sell value (10,000 Stubs). Granted, the Number Retirement Program requires you to collect at least a couple of these cards unless you own a Rare round card so this can actually help a lot of people complete the program. Truthfully, the pack is obviously available again because the Number Retirement Program is part of the Season 4 head start bonuses. If you have the program complete you earn some extra rewards heading into the new season. If you don’t have it complete, you can still complete it and earn the rewards so it makes sense from that perspective that the pack is back in the shop. However, seeing a repeat premium pack that’s essentially required to complete an old program that doesn’t even provide that great of a reward is bizarre. Then again, Season 4 itself feels a lot more like a rehashing than a revolutionary approach to content so it’s par for the course this time around.

And there you have the newest Diamond Duos set and Chase Pack! Are you going to go fishing for the best Mike Trout we’ve ever seen? Or are you sticking to the Season 4/Team Affinity 4 grind? Let us know in the comments!