The Summer Series returns in Diamond Dynasty for 2026, and attempts to recreate the buzz from last year's debut. One of the more prominent (and popular) new card series, the Summer series doesn't get a design refresh this year. For the most part, the art is identical which implies this may be returning as a firm "annual" drop. Still, it sort of highlights the staleness of The Show's content at this point in the year.
Summer Series Program Breakdown
The upside here is that the program should be incredibly easy to complete. You only need 100 stars, and you earn 10 stars with quick missions like tallying 5 strikeouts with any pitchers. There's even a handful of Moments to crank out if you really want to speed things up. A fairly quick grind that nets plenty of packs, XP, and Summer series cards that feed into the new collection.
The following players can be earned in this program:
- Corey Seager, SS TEX (96 OVR Summer Series)
- Chase Headley, 3B SD (95 OVR Summer Series)
- Corey Kluber, SP CLE (95 OVR Summer Series)
- Grant Taylor, RP CWS (94 OVR Summer Series)
- Brent Rooker, RF ATH (94 OVR Summer Series)
A couple of Coreys headline the program rewards. Kluber and Seager, respectively, are two of the most popular Diamond Dynasty players and get Red Diamonds in this program. Kluber is a top-10 Meta Overall starting pitcher, and while Seager falls just outside the top-10 for shortstops - this is still one of the very best hitters you can use in DD right now.
Seager will rake, but Kluber is a bit disappointing. All the major pitching attributes are sub-100, and there's much less break on his pitches than you'd expect. He still has the meta pitch mix and will get you outs, but I'd be a bit cautious starting this iteration of Kluber at the mid-levels of Ranked.
Summer Series Event Program
Stack your squad with your best Summer Series, Jolt series, 25-and-younger players, and Live Series Bronze and lower players to earn progress in the new Event. Even if you typically don't play online, I always recommend doing these events as you'll get pretty good rewards without needing to care too much about your wins and losses.
Notably, the final reward returns as an Event Rewind pack that gives you a choice from previous Event rewards. The PXP needed to complete this mission is 20,000; still a lot - but less than previous events.
The featured card reward in the program is Roman Anthony of the Boston Red Sox:
Summer Series Mini Seasons Challenge
The Summer Series also brings a brand-new Mini Seasons challenge. You can choose the innings and number of games in this run, meaning you can shorten it to 7 separate 3-inning games and grind through it as quickly as possible.
The featured rewards in this Mini Seasons challenge are:
- Jeromy Burnitz, RF, COL (95 OVR)
- Mike Napoli, C, LAA (94 OVR)
- Carlos Rodon, SP, NYY (94 OVR)
- Tony Fernandez, SS, TOR (94 OVR)
Clicking anywhere in the grid below takes you directly to that respective player/pack database page. Doing so is a great way to see the expected value on packs, as well as the Meta Overall/True Overall ratings for each player and more!
Summer and Father's Day Conquest Maps Added to MLB The Show 26
A pair of new Conquest maps are also ripe for the picking. The Summer Series gets a themed map, as well as an early Father's Day map.
Completing the maps will reward you with the usual packs and XP, as well as Summer Zach Neto (Summer map) and Milestone Bo Bichette (Father's Day map).
Speaking of Father's Day, check out the Road to the Show Shop for a free Father's Day themed-equipment pack.
How To Get the Free Father's Day Pack in MLB The Show 26
Naturally, you'll need to enter Road to the Show mode itself.
If you haven't started an RTTS save yet, it doesn't take very long and you'll need to do it in order to access the RTTS Shop. You just need to do enough to be able to access the above screen whenever you want.
In this menu, navigate to the top right where the "box" icon is located.
You'll see this screen where you can click into "The Show Shop" to access everything available in the RTTS section of the Shop. You (weirdly) cannot access this any other way. Once you claim the free bundle, it'll appear in your inventory like this.
Summer Series Diamond Quest Rewards
The new theme gets a unique Diamond Quest map as well. Dick Allen gets an atrocious Red Diamond card, while Gary Sheffield at least operates as a serviceable card.
Click on the cards inside the above grid to see their full attributes and database page.
Check out our Diamond Quest section here at ShowZone. See a full breakdown on each map, including the Stub value of the rewards, and more!
MLB The Show 26 Summer Series Pack Breakdown and Card Review
The usual slate of pack offerings return with the Summer Series. You can throw 10,000 Stubs at a random card from the whole series, or pony up an additional 15k for 3-guaranteed cards from the set, or 50,000 total Stubs for 5-Summer players. The more you pay, the better the odds at pulling the Rare tier - but you're still looking at easy losses no matter which pack you buy.
If you want to optimize your Stubs, buy all of the cards currently at quick-sell value and do not spend your Stubs on packs. You'll be able to buy the single cards to spend less overall than trying to land the big cards. Not nearly as fun or exciting, but almost always more rewarding.
The players featured in the Summer Series pack are:
- Willi Castro, 2B COL (96 OVR Summer Series)
- Hunter Greene, SP CIN (96 OVR Summer Series)
- George Brett, 3B KC (96 OVR Summer Series)
- Kyle Tucker, RF LAD (96 OVR Summer Series)
- Ceddanne Rafaela, CF BOS (95 OVR Summer Series)
- Jacob Wilson, SS ATH (95 OVR Summer Series)
- Nathan Eovaldi, SP TEX (95 OVR Summer Series)
- Hank Greenberg, 1B DET (95 OVR Summer Series)
- Ryne Sandberg, 2B CHC (95 OVR Summer Series)
- Jac Caglianone, RF KC (94 OVR Summer Series)
- Gaylord Perry, SP SF (94 OVR Summer Series)
- Travis Hafner, 1B CLE (94 OVR Summer Series)
- Lou Brock, LF STL (94 OVR Summer Series)
- Joe Torre, C ATL (94 OVR Summer Series)
- Gregory Soto, CP PIT (94 OVR Summer Series)
Summer Series Card Reviews
The Rare tier is full of top-10 Meta Overall cards at their respective positions. This is to be expected with the power creep in full effect, and the rest of the pack contains a bunch of fun names with interesting cards.
Hunter Greene is a big-boy pitcher, with great attributes and a very good pitch mix. His Outlier 4-Seamer has a great partner in the 90 MPH Slider with 96 Break in the secondary pitch slot, with a Splitter, Slurve, and Sinker to round out the mix. Outlier will almost always play on All-Star, especially in the 300-500 range, and the 112 Clutch will be critical with the overall improvement of the available hitters. I'd consider Greene to be a bargain, currently, as he is around 30k Stubs while fellow Rare-tier Willi Castro is close to 100,000 Stubs.
I'll highlight another starting pitcher, as there's a pretty strong parity amongst hitters at this point. There's switch-hitters at every position, and the overall power level is just simply strong. While Hunter Greene is a value-buy relative to another Rare tier card, Nathan Eovaldi might be one of the best value starting pitchers in Diamond Dynasty.
Nine spots in the Meta Overall rankings separate Greene and Eovaldi. You can buy Eovaldi for much cheaper, currently clocking in around 7,000 Stubs. Personally, I'd probably take a spin with Eovaldi versus paying more for Greene. Greene is probably the better card, but the value makes Eovaldi a great 4th or 5th rotation option for very low cost.
Chase Pack 15 Featuring 98 Summer Series Cal Raleigh
oh my god they did the meme again
300,000 Stub Chase pack switch-hitter of the week award goes to...
Cal Raleigh was downgraded below 90+ overall in the latest roster update, so here's a big-boy expensive version because there's a new Chase Pack and daddy needs a new set of wheels. This might be the worst-value card in the game. Yeah, he's a switch-hitting catcher with monster power and a great swing.
but also holy shit ewww
Sub-100 Contact and Clutch, sub-90 Pop Time with a mediocre arm. No secondary position.
300,000 Stubs?
How To Complete the Summer Series Collection in MLB The Show 26
I'm sure most of you know the drill by now. New premium pack in the shop and across Diamond Dynasty means a new collection. The following rewards can be earned within the Summer Series collection:
Collect 13 = Rob Dibble, RP, CIN (96 OVR)
Collect 21 = Ted Williams, LF, BOS (97 OVR)
Collect 29 = Tarik Skubal, SP, DET (98 OVR)
If you're willing to grind out the non-market cards, you can unlock Rob Dibble and Ted Williams for as low as about 70,000 total Stubs. That's killer value for the lower-tiered rewards. I always find these cards to be the most attractive, as they're easier to obtain while still having a competitive chance online. Dibble and Williams are both fantastic options for their relative price.
Tarik Skubal is obviously great. He's the new #2 starting pitcher according to Meta Overall. The cost to acquire, however, phases him out of my reach like most collection rewards. These are the collections I'll complete later in the year, when the overall cost of the market comes down after 99 overalls become common, or not at all.
At launch, Skubal will run somewhere between 215,000 - 700,000 Stubs depending on the path you take to collecting.
June Spotlight Program & Pack 2 Breakdown
Braden Montgomery is very-much worth highlighting, as his debut Red Diamond is a Meta Overall Monster at multiple positions.
The surface-level card is great on its own merits. Montgomery is top-5 Meta Overall at each outfield position. Where I think this card is most exciting is in the Parallel Mod potential. This card can be morphed into a 99 OVR outfielder of any kind. You can turn him into a true 5-tool elite outfielder easily, or spec him out any other way you choose. As far as free cards go, this one is absolutely worth your time grinding out - especially if you want to freshen up your outfield.
hey, psst
he's a switch-hitter
i heard people are into that kinda thing around here
Don't Forget
Earlier this week, a new program celebrating George Springer's 300th career home run was dropped. Knocking this out gets you a free Milestone version of Springer.
This is a very easy way to grab a new Red Diamond, and a free Milestone card for collections!
What are your thoughts on this week's big content drop? Let us know in the comments!
