Frequently Asked Questions
It depends on which rating you weight. By True Overall (skill ceiling), Spotlight Carter Jensen ranks as the best catcher in MLB The Show 26. By Meta Overall (how the card plays in the current meta), Milestone Cal Raleigh takes the top spot. The tabs above the list let you sort by either rating — full top 25 visible in both views.
Behind the #1 card, Hall of Fame Roy Campanella ranks second by True Overall and Spotlight Cole Carrigg ranks second by Meta Overall. The two ratings can diverge for runner-up spots more often than at #1 — flip the tabs above to see how each ranking shakes out the rest of the top 25.
Across every MLB The Show year ShowZone tracks, 2025 Finest Cal Raleigh ranks as the best catcher of all time by ShowZone's True Overall and Meta Overall ratings. Flip the All-Time toggle on the list above to see the full cross-year top 25.
Visit Spotlight Carter Jensen's detail page on ShowZone (showzone.gg/players/26-99-spotlight-carter-jensen) for current marketplace price, recent sales history, whether the card is locked into a program reward path, and the full attribute breakdown. Most top-ranked cards are available on the in-game marketplace using Stubs; some launch in Player Programs, Conquest map rewards, or limited-time content drops before hitting the market.
Every card in MLB The Show 26 is scored using ShowZone's True Overall (the player's underlying skill ceiling) and Meta Overall (how the community ranks the card in practice). The list shows the 25 highest-rated cards eligible for this category. We re-score every card whenever player data changes — typically with each roster update.
For the single top 25 aggregate across every position — ranked by both True Overall and Meta Overall — see ShowZone's Top 25 Overall list. For a specific position, pitch type, batting style, or situational ranking (best-catchers, best-sliders, best-switch-power-hitters, most-versatile-players, best-baserunners, etc.), the Top 25 Rankings hub lists every variant. Each applies the same True Overall + Meta Overall scoring but filters to that variant's eligible cards.
True Overall measures a card's actual skill ceiling by weighting attributes by their real gameplay impact, ignoring SDS's 99 cap. Meta Overall reflects how the community ranks cards in practice — factoring in build viability, position scarcity, and meta archetypes. True Overall answers "how good is this card?" Meta Overall answers "how good is this card right now in the meta?"
The ranking refreshes automatically whenever player data changes — most often after a roster update. Roster updates in MLB The Show 26 happen roughly every three weeks during the MLB season. New card releases, attribute changes, and parallel updates can all reshuffle the order.
SDS's in-game overall is capped at 99 and uses a different weighting than ShowZone. Many elite cards are tied at 99 in-game but have meaningful differences in real gameplay impact. ShowZone's True Overall removes the cap and weights attributes by what actually matters during play, so it can surface gaps that the in-game number hides.
