For as “samey” content can feel in MLB The Show at times, SDS is fully capable of some unique new content drops. The Number Retirement themed set of content is the perfect example. Players get their jersey numbers retired somewhat frequently, but it’s never more than a brief mention before that nights highlight reel. Enter MLB The Show 23 and Diamond Dynasty. Not only did SDS build an entire program around honoring Fernando Valenzuela’s number retirement, they went all out and dropped a huge batch of content around player retirements. Utilizing the existing Milestone card series, this batch of content is just the kind of fun wrinkle that freshens up releases from time to time. There’s a lot to get to here so we’ll get right to it.
MLB The Show 23 Number Retirement Event
The latest Event is Number Retirement themed and features three Milestone card rewards. The event rules are as follows:
- Set 2 and 3: Milestone, Topps now and Monthly Awards series
- Core: Topps Now, Live Series (this includes LS collection rewards)
- Dodger Stadium stadium-locked
- Max team overall – 99
- All-Star difficulty
The most prolific rewards are Milestone Jim Thome at 5 wins, No-Sell Event Rewind pack at 10 wins, Milestone Eddie Mathews at 20 wins and No-Sell Event 12-Win Rewind Pack at 40 wins. Speaking the 12-win players, Michael Young is this event’s 12-win reward.
SS Milestone Michael Young (Texas Rangers)
Meta Overall rating: 103.69 – #8 SS
Not too shabby for a SS. At this point in the year, online rewards really need to be some of the preeminent cards at their respective positions. Michael Young rates out as the 8th best SS in the game and I’d say that’s a decent enough landing for a 12-win Event reward. Young has a pretty good swing and getting max Contact against both sides with 100+ Power against both sides is pretty huge.
MLB The Show 23 Number Retirement Choice Pack
Next up in the Number Retirement themed content is the Number Retirement Choice Pack. This pack is similarly constructed to other packs like this, with a Base Round and Rare Round tier of players. The players that can be found within this pack are as follows:
Base Round
None of these cards are really anything to write home about. Notably, if you didn’t have a chance to take Chipper Jones in the Set 1 Collection Choice Pack or simply don’t want him as your Wild Card, this 97 overall at least gets him on the field for you. In terms of Meta Overall, none of these cards move the needle and that’s unsurprising given that they’re 97 overalls. However, Jorge Posada is actually the highest rated card from the Base Round according to Meta Overall. You could do a lot worse at Catcher, in fact, I was going to use this Posada as my starting Catcher until All-Star Game Will Smith dropped and I snapped him up for about 25k Stubs.
Rare Round
CF Milestone Duke Snider (Los Angeles Dodgers)
Meta Overall rating: 104.67 – #8 CF
Snider rates out in the top-10 of all CF in Diamond Dynasty. This Milestone version is a little better than we usually see, with Snider not being completely deficient against LHP. In fact, he’ll reach 100 PWR L if you reach Parallel 5 with him. He’ll also obtain Diamond fielding at P2 and hit 80 Speed at P3, which basically makes him a Pokemon that you just need to level up a bit in order for the attributes to round off. Jokes aside, I’m surprised by this Snider card and he’s not too bad at all.
2B Milestone Craig Biggio (Houston Astros)
Meta Overall rating: 106; C: 107 – #4 2B, #4 Catcher
Next up is Craig Biggio. Overall this is what I expect a 99 overall Biggio to look like and it results in a really good all-around card. The elite Contact is there with Power against both sides just under 90. You can get to 90+ Power against both sides at P4 which helps Biggio stand out a bit more. The most important thing about this card is the Catcher secondary. Biggio’s best cards typically get it, but here it actually helps his versatility and overall value go through the roof.
Biggio not only rates out as the 4th best 2B in Diamond Dynasty by Meta Overall, he’s also the 4th best Catcher as well. That’s huge. At P3 (Parallel 3), Biggio will be a Diamond shield Catcher with 93 Speed and 93 Stealing. Not only that, but Biggio can also play LF and CF and carry that elite Fielding and Speed with him. Biggio also gets Dead Red and Breaking Ball Hitter, so the Quirks are doing some work here too. This card rocks.
SP Milestone Roy Halladay (Toronto Blue Jays)
Meta Overall Rating: 98.74 – #25 SP
Roy Halladay rounds out the Rare Round in the Retirement Number Choice Pack. Unfortunately, this card falls pretty flat in pretty much every way. Attribute wise, Halladay gets 105 H/9, 104 K/9, 116 BB/9 and 111 Clutch. The H/9 is a bit lower than you’d expect to see on an elite SP at this point and that alone stands out. The big plus here is the 116 BB/9 should give Halladay pretty miniscule PAR circles (the zone that perfectly released pitches will land) and the elite Control on all his pitches means you should be able to paint with ease.
Another knock on this card is that Halladay features three fastballs – Cutter, Sinker and 4-Seam – that are all incredibly close in speed. His Curveball drops in at 80 MPH and the Splitter is 86 MPH and despite having 90+ Control and Break on every single pitch – this Halladay will almost certainly get rocked on All-Star difficulty.
To me, this is the perfect Hall of Fame/Legend SP. That elite Control paired with the BB/9 will be invaluable and allow higher-skilled players to dice opponents. I usually don’t like pitchers that don’t have a Slider or Slurve to add another plane of break, but on the higher levels I think really skilled pitchers can dominate. Even on All-Star – if you’re a good pitcher, you might find a way to have some success. But overall, this card is massively disappointing for a Rare Round card.
Papadell’s Pick
If I roll the Rare Round, I’m easily taking Craig Biggio here. Even if I didn’t start Biggio, having him on the bench for the perfect situation makes him the ultimate trap card. Late in the game and I end up getting my starting Catcher on base? Biggio can pinch run with elite Speed and even has the Steal rating that might grab my opponent’s attention and lead them into making a mistake. Beyond that, this is just a stellar all around card and a ton of value makes him my easy pick here.
MLB The Show 23 Number Retirement Program
Finally, we get to the main course of this content drop which is the program. Designed to highlight several Legends that achieved the ultimate recognition a team can give by retiring their number, the usual program design leads to Milestone Fernando Valenzuela at 100 program stars.
Players that complete this program can earn the following rewards:
- 34 total packs including a Number Retirement Choice Pack
- 15,000 XP
- 3,500 Stubs
- Eight total Set 3 Milestone cards
The seven Milestone cards you can earn in the program leading up to Fernando Valenzuela are as follows:
Let’s take a look at how you can complete this program.
Optional
There’s actually a couple optional ways to earn program stars in this program. Interestingly, playing the Number Retirement Event does not earn you progress in the program. Typically, wins in events will pay out at least 1 program star but not this time. Instead, players can collect Number Retirement themed cards from the event and choice pack for program progress.
Event Collection
- Collect Milestone Jim Thome – 4 program stars
- Collect Milestone Eddie Mathews – 16 program stars
- Collect Milestone Michael Young – 20 program stars
That’s a total of 40 program stars if you collect all three of the event cards. If you’re going to play the event anyway, then this will be a surefire and quick way to knock this program out quickly. It’ll help you avoid some combination of Moments, Showdown or Conquest and get you on your way to Fernando.
Number Retirement Choice Pack Collection
Another optional collection features the choice pack cards. This is actually a big deal and the first time I can remember SDS allowing players to buy cards from the market just to earn program progress. Obviously that’s true of the event rewards as well, but in terms of actual marketplace packs/cards this is a first I believe.
- Collect Milestone Todd Helton – 4 program stars
- Collect Milestone Jorge Posada – 4 program stars
- Collect Milestone Catfish Hunter – 4 program stars
- Collect Milestone Chipper Jones – 4 program stars
- Collect Milestone Willie Stargell – 4 program stars
- Collect Milestone Craig Biggio – 25 program stars
- Collect Milestone Duke Snider – 25 program stars
- Collect Milestone Roy Halladay – 25 program stars
That’s a pretty big pool of potential program stars here. This also has an impact on the marketplace overall. Players now have incentive to keep their pack-pulls versus selling them to offset Stubs spent on buying the packs. This will most likely inflate the long-term value of these cards and make them a bit harder to obtain than we might have seen before. I personally think this is a good move by SDS. An aspect of Diamond Dynasty that doesn’t get talked about enough is the time versus money trade-off. Hardcore grinders that have the time can pretty much play every corner of the game and get whatever they want. It’ll just take time more than anything. Those of us a bit strapped on time often simply don’t even have the time to engage with certain kinds of content. This gives us the ultimate choice – spend time grinding, or spend money progressing? Every one of us has different amounts of time and money to spend and even though I won’t be spending Stubs just to unlock this Valenzuela – this hopefully proves a similar move in the future. I’d absolutely shell out Stubs to finish a program faster if there are rewards I actually want contained within.
Moments
As usual, there’s a deluge of Moments to be completed here. There are 16 Moments in total that pay out a total of 32 program stars upon completion.
PXP/Stat Missions
PXP/Stat Missions
There’s also a handful of missions featuring the Legends that are obtained throughout the program leading up to Fernando. It’s important to note that not every card you earn has a unique mission attached. This is most likely due to the missions being tied to each player’s respective jersey number that was retired. There is a cumulative PXP mission, however, so each card in the program will help you progress one way or another.
- Tally 3,434 total PXP with Retirement Number Program Cards – 5 program stars
- Tally 21 IP with Milestone Warren Spahn – 3 program stars
- Tally 1 SB with Milestone Ozzie Smith – 2 program stars
- Tally 3 HR with Milestone Harold Baines – 2 program stars
- Get On Base 8 times with Milestone Cal Ripken Jr. – 3 program stars
- Score 7 Runs with Milestone Mickey Mantle – 3 stars
There’s a total of 18 program stars here if you complete all the missions. You can easily knock out most of these in the attached Conquest, but that 21 IP with Warren Spahn is a bit tedious. Depending on the difficulty you play on, you might be able to stretch Spahn for Complete Games but I still think it’ll require some additional grinding.
Conquest
Again, you know the drill here. A run-of-the-mill Conquest map featuring seven CPU strongholds that you need to capture. Completing the map will net you 20 program stars.
Showdown
Finally, you’ll get a chance to take on Fernando Valenzuela himself in the Retirement Number Showdown. You’ll face seven must-win Mini-Boss battles along the way to reach Valenzuela. Overall, this should be a fairly easy Showdown and ultimately net you a breezy 20 program stars.
No matter how you go about completing this program, you’ll have to earn a total of 100 program stars for completion and to unlock the man of honor.
MLB The Show 23 Milestone Fernando Valenzuela
Meta Overall rating: 91.36
One quick note that’s cool about this card art – it’s the same action shot of Fernando from his MLB The Show 21 Milestone card, except it’s strewn across a backdrop of Dodger Stadium. I think this is a super cool nod to a prior Milestone card and the card art is beautiful.
As for the attributes – there’s really no sugarcoating the fact that this isn’t a very good card. Gone are the days where Fernando is a diabolical hurler, spamming Screwballs and Curveballs up in the zone to fool hitters left and right. With a 4-Seamer that sits in the low-to-mid 90’s, the ungodly off-speed offerings can still elicit some terrible swings from opponents. Ultimately, I think this card gets absolutely shelled by decent hitters. The 98 BB/9 will run a high risk of your pitches ending up in the middle of the zone and if you really do try throwing the off-speed up – godspeed.
Regardless, not every card that gets released needs to be an uber-tier, #1 Meta Overall ranked card. Diamond Dynasty at its core is a card collecting mode and this is a free card that only requires some atypical grinding to earn. You can choose to spend money this time around and knock it out quicker, but ultimately I don’t think the rewards are worth the price.
Despite this card not being very good or appearing to be competitive, it’s a free Set 3 card that will go into your binder and help you unlock some other cards that are actually pretty good. And besides that – it’s just a really cool program from SDS to highlight an iconic player on a special day. So props to SDS for creating the program and congratulations to Fernando Valenzuela on a well earned honor.
Cory Wayne Dell
Cory has been writing about all things baseball and gaming since 2022 and has been featured at Operation Sports as well as cited by Forbes. Cory is also a multi-instrumentalist and founder of the band Cargocastle. Cargocastle's latest single, "Truth and Reconciliation," is available on Spotify and all major streaming platforms. Cory is also the author of Shadow of a Monster, a personal memoir currently seeking publication.
