MLB The Show 20: News Update

MLB The Show 20 keeps looking and getting better and better!

So last night Sony San Diego Studios had one of their weekly developer livestreams to talk about and show off the changes made to this edition of MLB The Show. The main talking points were the integration of Minor League Baseball players into the game (1,500 official players), the new features with franchise mode, and Road to the Show. As well as the next legends for Diamond Dynasty.

The addition of the fifteen-hundred MLB minor-leaguers was a collaboration between Sony San Diego Studios and RidinRosters who I have mentioned before on the podcast as someone who specializes in MLB The Show roster work. Some of the specific players shown by San Diego Studios have been Luis Robert, Nick Madrigal, and Michael Kopech all of the Chicago WhiteSox. Around 100 minor league players have face-scans, animations, and more while the rest will be similar to the best unofficial prospect rosters put out in previous years. You can pledge to RidinRosters’ Patreon here. Now onto Franchise mode.

There are two ways to go about customizing your franchise(s) in MLB The Show 20. The first is while in the offseason either at the end or beginning of a season. Once you commit to customizing a team while in Franchise mode there are four steps to do it. First, you enter the new team name, then you create a new logo, penultimately you customize team uniforms, and then you select a new stadium. The tools look very much like the ones used in Diamond Dynasty in the best way. For those like me who aren’t artistically gifted you can use the Logo Vault to find a logo for your rebranded team. The big announcement last night was the export/import feature where, once you are done rebranding a team you can export it and import it to another franchise mode. You can actually replace all 30 teams and do a custom league. This is going to be perfect for those who play with classic rosters. As MLB changes its rules MLB The Show changes along with it. So additional features are 26 man rosters in the regular season and 28 in the offseason, 13 pitchers in the regular season and 14 in the offseason, 10 day injury list for players and 15 for pitchers, 3 batter minimums for pitchers in franchise mode, 2 way player designation which requires 20 games at the position designated and 3 at bats to begin accruing the status as a 2 way player. Lastly the waiver period in August has been removed.

When it comes to Road to the Show there are new bat-slams, equipment and more. The big feature are your relationships with your teammates. Those who you are good with will give you bonuses. If you are a third baseman and you are tight with a first baseman your accuracy and more will increase. If you are good friends with a pitcher a possibility will be the pitcher having more confidence. The bonuses are all dependant on if your buddies are active or there will be no bonuses. Gains and bonuses are now shown when you achieve the task in real time rather than after. The connections you make in Road to the Show between your teammates are a major factor. With boosted at-bats, when you have a friend who is on base you get a boost to your skills, if you are in the middle of the lineup you will have a boost towards your power attribute and if the friend is in scoring position there will be a boost to the clutch attribute. Not only to they boost you, you will boost them related to your friendship. You can also now choose whether you want to improve contact or power in dynamic challenges. When it comes to adding new pitches you can now add them while training. If you are excelling you advance the process and you can swap out pitches during the season rather than having to wait until the offseason. During boss battles in RttS you have the opportunity to get item rewards. There are also personality rewards along with gains in dynamic challenges. When you hit the majors the commentary team will talk about all your accomplishments and milestone moments. The latter you will get rewarded on. Relationships between a shortstop/second baseman or other combo will get mentioned by the commentary team as well.

When it comes to new legends for Diamond Dynasty there’s John Olerud, and Brian Roberts. There’s also a new series of Prospect cards in Diamond Dynasty. The first shown was Orioles catching prospect Adley Rutschman.

You can watch the livestream in it’s entirety below.