MLB The Show 25: New Ranked and Battle Royale Rewards, Multiplayer Program Drop 1 Live Now

There's been plenty to do offline lately, but the online crowd gets refreshed Ranked and Battle Royale rewards to go along with the new Multiplayer 5 Program.

Let's dig in.

Ranked Season Rewards

The two newest World Series rewards are Frank Thomas and Tim Raines.

97 Contributor 1B Frank Thomas - #5 1B True Overall

Big Hurt gets a beefy 97 iteration and brings pretty much everything you'd expect to see. Frank absolutely murders LHP with max Contact and Power against lefties, with 120 Clutch making him extremely lethal with runners in scoring position. He's a little weaker against RHP, but I don't think there's too much to complain about with 100/90 Contact/Power splits against RHP.

He's slow and terrible defensively, but if you're running him at 1B you're probably not going to feel it too much. With Bad Ball Hitter, Dead Red, and Breaking Ball Hitter Quirks active; Frank Thomas will be blasting the ball enough that you'll be happy to watch him drop a couple picks at 1B from time to time.

For White Sox fans, this is one of their big legends getting a very good card earlier in the cycle than perhaps we're used to.

HEY MIKE AND LUCAS, HOW YA DOIN'

97 2nd Half Heroes LF Tim Raines - #3 LF True Overall

The other new Ranked reward is one of my personal favorite legends in the game - Tim Raines.

Raines does pretty much everything, with elite Contact against both sides and 103 Clutch. Pretty respectable pop for a "short king" at 70/30, with 87 Fielding, 90 Reaction, and 99 Speed and Stealing. Raines also gets 100 Vision on this card, which actually has me surprised that a 97 overall looks this good. I think this is an incredible card design, and it all packaged in a switch-hitter with an amazing swing makes 2nd Half Tim Raines one of my personal favorite cards we've seen all year. He even gets Dead Red and Bad Ball Hitter, meaning he's not entirely devoid of Quirks.

Battle Royale Flawless Rewards

Next up is the Flawless rewards earned by going 10-0 in Battle Royale. That makes these cards harder to acquire and rarer, at least until they appear in the Rewind packs.

97 Awards 2B Joe Morgan - #2 2B True Overall

A pretty standard looking Morgan card at 97 overall. The Contact and Clutch are a little lower than you'd probably want with a card that doesn't even have Gold Fielding, but this is still pretty solid for Morgan. The overall attributes here are a bit stifled by the 115 Discipline and 95 Durability, but this is still good for a 2B.

The defense is fine at 75 stock Fielding, and he will obtain a Gold shield at Parallel 5. This is a speedy version of Morgan, with 95 Speed and 99 Stealing.

I've personally never done well with Morgan cards, so I usually steer clear. Dead Red and Breaking Ball Hitter Quirks are appreciated for anyone using the Reds legend.

97 Milestone CP Joe Nathan - #1 CP True Overall

The second option in the Flawless Choice Pack is Milestone Joe Nathan. This dude carves me up every year, and this looks like another version of him that will do more of the same. Any Closing Pitcher with 112 H/9, 102 K/9, 103 BB/9, and 125 Clutch can see bullpen usage throughout the rest of the game cycle. We're not that far off from 99 overalls flooding the game, but this card still holds its own against those eventual releases.

Nathan features a mid-to-upper 90's 4-Seamer with near perfect Control at 97, a Slider with max-Break and 90 Control, and a Sinker that's a tad slower than the 4-Seamer complemented by a Changeup and Cutter that aren't main offerings but notable additions.

The 4-Seamer/Slider/Cutter trio can be deadly enough, but the Sinker has decent Control and Break to mix in. The Changeup doesn't have great Control or Break, but at 83 MPH can really throw off a hitter's timing when used correctly.

Multiplayer Program 5 Drop 1

Finally, the first content and mission drop for the new Multiplayer program follows the same structure we've been seeing. This has been fun to grind even as a mostly co-op-exclusive player these days, and I quite enjoy this setup versus the separate programs.

Here's the first selection of missions:

Mission Tiers

• 5-Star:
• • Score 5 Runs
  • 2025 PXP with Batters
  • 2025 PXP with Pitchers
  • Get on Base 50 Times
• 10-Star:
• • Get on Base 100 Times
  • Hit 15 HRs
• 15-Star:
• • Record 70 Strikeouts
• 20-Star:
• • Tally 51 Extra Base Hits

As always, stacking missions across game modes will speed up the grind.

Rewards

Again, the structure is mostly the same. The first card reward is earned at 10 stars (Lee Smith) and the second active card reward is at 50 stars (Brenton Doyle). You'll grab a Ranked Rewind pack at 90 stars, a Battle Royale Rewind at 120 stars, the next card rewards at 100 and 130 stars respectively, and there's still a 50-pack plus Chase pack bundle waiting at the 150 star finale.

I love Lee Smith cards and he almost always finds his way into my bullpen every year. An Outlier 4-Seamer with a nasty Slider, Cutter, and Forkball can have that effect on a guy, ya know? Getting this card for free with a bit of online grinding is more than a fair price to pay. Despite "only" being a 95 overall, Smith is still the #6 CP according to True Overall for good reason.

Doyle, on the other hand, will surely underwhelm pretty much everyone. He has a unique profile as a fast, defensive first player with relatively paltry offensive attributes. At least until runners are in scoring position for him, where he suddenly becomes a 117 Clutch monster and those Power numbers look a bit better. This is someone you can stash at the bottom of the lineup who can do some real damage with runners in scoring position.

I've enjoyed this lineup building element in MLB The Show 25. Fielding finally, truly feels like it matters and a card like this will catch damn near anything hit between left-to-right centerfield. The surface level offensive attributes aren't exciting, but when you factor in the importance of Clutch - suddenly Doyle becomes a valuable lower-order hitter.

But he also has no Quirks, so there's that.

Are you excited to grind out the new online rewards? Where are you starting first? Let us know in the comments!