MLB The Show 26 Gameplay Trailer Breakdown and Commentary

The pre-release hype train for MLB The Show 26 has left the tracks, and we have the official gameplay trailer already.

Off the heels of the release date and pre-order details being announced, the gameplay trailer is usually the next big shoe to drop before Feature Premieres.

MLB The Show 26 Gameplay Trailer

There's not a ton to unpack, but let's dig in.

Road to the Show

There's clearly a major focus on Road to the Show in terms of presentation. Leading off the trailer, as well as the addition of 11 new NCAA colleges and branding. The thread here is really highlighting the grind of going from high school-to-college-to-professional.

There's also special cut scenes showcasing your ballplayer on the stage at Cooperstown should you undertake a Hall of Fame career.

Franchise

The yearly promise of "a new trade experience" and "new logic system" was found in the trailer as well. Not to discount the hardworking folks that work on the game, but it's basically a running sports game meme at this point that these are the main talking points each year. The Show's Franchise mode has long been lacking compared to rival sports games, and it appears that there's nothing major coming again unless SDS unveils some surprises.

Diamond Dynasty

It appears we're getting a fresh design for card UI and I absolutely love it. It's clean and just sleek to look at. This could be the first official card rating we've seen, though SDS always cautions us that card ratings aren't final. Judge's Live Series starting off as a 92 overall sounds about right, especially with the new Fielding attributes.

SDS previously revealed that Fielding attributes would be split, with directional attributes being applied for the first time ever. This first-look shows the Reaction rating having Forward, Backward, Right, and Left split into unique attributes.

Off the bat, this is probably the announced feature I'm most excited about personally. In theory, this should radically change how the game actually plays. Presumably, SDS is using real Statcast data to determine these ratings, which means we'll get dynamic fielding that truly feels different from player to player. This should add even more weight to roster construction, and adds a fresh wrinkle to gameplay overall.

It also appears that Discipline and Baserunning Aggressiveness have been removed from Diamond Dynasty attribute determination. It was a major point of conversation last year, as similar overall cards were radically different thanks to non-factor attributes like Discipline being manipulated. This screenshot on the surface appears to focus solely on the major attributes, which we've always utilized here at ShowZone in our analysis.

The World Baseball Classic returns in 2026, featuring the Tokyo Dome amongst other new stadiums, as well as all 20 WBC Federation squads.

Gameplay

We also got our first look at Bear Down Pitching. It appears to be a feature that allows for optimized or perhaps "perfect" control on a pitch. We'll need to wait for exact details, but the trailer at least gives the impression that a select number of pitches can be used with the Bear Down mechanic that will have a major effect on the outcome.

New Legends

The gameplay trailer also gave us a glimpse of three new legends in MLB The Show 26!

Albert Pujols, Felix Hernandez, and Roy Campanella all appear at the end of the gameplay trailer. These are three huge legends to unveil from the beginning.

Pujols is one of the greatest players in the history of the game. Officially retired after the 2022 season where he became only the 4th player in history with 700+ Home Runs, Pujols returns to The Show after only three seasons post-retirement.

Hernandez was one of the most dominant pitchers of his era. An absolute stud and workhorse who won the Cy Young in 2010 and finished top-10 in five other seasons. Hernandez was one of my top guesses for new legends in this off-season piece I wrote, using the 2026 Hall of Fame ballot to predict new legends.

Campanella somehow is an underrated and often under discussed legend that finally appears in MLB The Show. I did a little research and it appears he's never appeared in any major baseball video games? Perhaps I missed something, but it almost feels criminal if it's true. Regardless, anyone unfamiliar with the 11-time All-Star and 3-time MVP will have another mashing Catcher to play with.

Is this a sneak peak at the Live Series collection for 2026? It's at least feasible that Hernandez would be the AL reward, Campanella the NL reward, with Pujols as the ultimate MLB collection reward.

There's a breakdown of the first gameplay trailer! There will be plenty more coming in the following days and weeks.

Stay tuned to ShowZone for up-to-date information on everything MLB The Show!