One of the cooler content threads this year has been the cover athlete Takeover Programs. Starting with Elly De La Cruz at the beginning of the year, MLB The Show 25's in-game menus and dashboard art flipped to highlight De La Cruz exclusively. We also saw a program featuring a free power-level scaled card as the ultimate reward.
This trend continued with Paul Skenes over the last month or so, and we finally get the final iteration here with Baltimore Orioles' shortstop Gunnar Henderson.
Program Breakdown
This is perhaps the simplest of the programs to complete, and should end up rewarding you a free 99 overall in record time.
Completing the program requires only 20 stars that can be earned through a combination of several methods.
There are five total Moments worth a total of 10 stars, six total stat missions worth a total of 12 stars, and four grind missions utilizing ANY Gunnar Henderson cards that are worth a total of 8 stars. The Moments are pretty easy, so blasting through those and then hopping into games with a Gunnar card from your binder or a targeted grind-team should complete the program fairly quick. Racking up random stats and PXP is so commonplace in the programs you can probably double-dip multiple programs if you aren't completely caught up.
Rewards
- 10,000 XP
- 5 Show Packs
99 OVR Cover Athlete Gunnar Henderson - #4 SS True Overall, #1 3B Meta Overall
There's been plenty of elite and high-powered cards stashed in packs this year. Cards like this available after a little bit of grinding will always be welcome.
I like Henderson's swing on the cards I've used, and these are certainly solid attributes on any SS. We're very close to the endless debates on "which 99 overall is better" and cards that don't have 100+ everything will soon become the target of the "meh" crowd. The fact that this card debuts as the #4 SS is pretty cool, and if you run him at his secondary 3B he's actually the best 3B according to Meta Overall.
Which cover athlete Takeover was your favorite? Will you be running Gunnar on your squad? Let us know in the comments!
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.
