MLB The Show 26 Franchise Mode Wishlist (Yes, '26)

I’m just a man hoping y’all will take the OS survey we posted two weeks ago. This one is more about sports cards, your reading habits, and fantasy sports. Again, it’s always in an effort to better serve you all in the long run and curate experiences you might care about.

We were just last week talking about the “state of play” of MLB The Show 25, but it was brought to my attention that SDS is already putting out surveys for franchise mode and MLB The Show 26 features. OS legend Armor and Sword posted most of the survey on the forums, and while I did not receive this specific survey — it’s unclear why people are getting it or not, doesn’t seem to have to do with pre-orders or anything specific — I thought it would be worthwhile to rank the items from the survey and chat about some of them.

While you might think this seems early for this sort of survey/wishlist, the reality is features for next year’s game get locked in closer to now than in September. This is just the nature of game development and how much time it takes to develop and implement stuff. The other caveat here is just because these items are on a survey, it doesn’t mean they’d all be in next year’s game. Some of these seem to be “big picture” items that could be years in the future. That said, let’s jump into things.

This newsletter is sponsored by GIGABYTE and their top-of-the-line monitors AORUS FO27Q3 and FO27Q2 which are designed with pro-level performance in mind. These QD-OLED monitors have lightning-fast response times, an astounding 360Hz refresh rate, and vibrant colors with quantum dot technology. And the best part? GIGABYTE is running sales until March 31, 2025 using our links. Plus, if you’ve ever wanted to improve in games like MLB The Show, one of the best ways is via a highly responsive monitor.

• FO27Q3 $150 (19%) off on Amazon.

• M27Q $80 (27%) off on Amazon.

• And GIGABYTE's AORUS Master 18 / 16, available on NewEgg March 31

There are 27(!) questions, so I won’t be giving equal time to all of them, but I’m going to put these items into tiers.

Top Priority - Must-Have Tier

Full League Customization (realignment, rule changes, season length, era-specific leagues) - This would likely be The Show’s answer to MyEras from NBA 2K more than perhaps the OOTP model. I can’t really think of anything that could be more important because you’re doing so much when you implement something like this. If you do it poorly, you’re just going to break franchise mode. For all that 2K still doesn’t do perfectly with its franchise mode, having that level of customization adds so much — and the reason 2K’s mode doesn’t always work great doesn’t usually have much to do with the customization options either.

Expanded Rosters (to add 36 more players for full Single A and Rookie League) - You got to have this. For whatever I might say further down the list about delaying certain “realistic” features until the franchise mode itself is more interesting, you need to have the right roster limits to unlock full customization. And this is even before you consider the full rosters folks in the community would make.

(In addition, while it was not in the survey, we need Non-Roster Invites (NRIs) for Spring Training so we can use prospects and veterans not on the 40-man roster so we don’t needlessly burn options and so forth if/when they don’t make the team.)

Expanded Draft Rounds And Scouting - I still don’t love the draft process in this game so that’s what I would improve first to improve the scouting elements and how engaging it all feels. In the grand scheme of things, you’re happy if 15 percent of your draft picks make it to the big club, and it’s super rare to find multiple top-end players in the same draft. Still, this is a video game so you probably want slightly better results than that when you’re the virtual GM, but it’s not worth expanding the draft rounds unless the scouting is vastly improved.

This doesn’t mean including more and more “fog of war” to me, it more means better ways to look at stats and listen to your scouts to make decisions. Maybe the “fog of war” is removing ratings altogether from this part of the equation since you are usually reading scouting reports (plus, there is a “combine” for prospects in real life), looking at production, and then getting character background info as well.

On a more nuts-and-bolts level, if you expand the rosters, then we need to expand the draft to fill out these expanded rosters.

Completely Overhauled Player Progression and Regression System (based on age, performance, stats, injuries, etc.) - I mean, yeah, duh. It’s important and overdue.

Full On Expansion Mode - This is a sub-category of “full league customization” to me, but I think it’s important if you want to completely sell the idea of having a franchise mode with nearly unlimited optionality.

New Overhauled Wear And Tear Injury System (includes lingering effects of major injuries, minor strains, career threatening injuries) - Another area of the game that feels long overdue for an overhaul. Major pitcher injuries are a feature not a bug at this point in real life, so adding more to that system while also making the game-to-game decisions with your lineups more compelling would be huge.

Bullpen Tuning To Reflect Modern Baseball - Another obvious one. The bullpens do have better usage this year for simmed stats and such to a degree, but it’s better to get in front of this sooner than later (after all, there are too many complete games in The Show’s simmed stats). We’re not going to get less “bullpen games” or “openers” in the real MLB, so you should attack this in the video game sooner than later. Plus, I would assume this means we don’t always need to set five starters in our rotation management screen and so forth with these updates.

Revamped Lineup Logic To Reflect Modern Baseball - I’m not really sure what this one means in terms of “modern baseball” as the caveat, but The Show just needs better lineup logic, period.

Upper Tier

International Signing Period - I don’t think this quite gets into the “top priority” list because you just need to make the signings interesting as a mechanic and then all the other “free agency” elements are additive (albeit you can also trade this money, which adds a layer to it). That said, I feel like a little bit of a hypocrite not putting this into the top tier because I always advocate for getting as many real rules/parts of the CBA into our sports video games as possible.

Regardless, if you ever want to learn about the international signing period and why Roki Sasaki got a way smaller contract than a Jung Hoo Lee, here is the explainer.

Japan League-like Player System/Player Hold - Armor and Sword forgot the specific name of this feature from the survey. I’m just going to assume he’s talking about the “posting” system that determines how guys like the aforementioned Jung Ho Lee make it to MLB.

My reasoning for it being just “upper tier” is the same as for the international signing period.

Year To Year Saves - First off, don’t kill me for not putting this as a top priority. I want Y2Y saves bad, BUT they didn’t put roster carryover as an option in this survey (probably because it doesn’t just impact franchise mode), but that’s what I want first. As much as it can suck to start a franchise over, if the rosters from one year to the next can be imported with the Share feature, the work of the community becomes so much more additive and there’s a wealth of franchise mode ideas you can do regardless of whether you bring your specific franchise from one game to the next.

Yes, the stories you build with your teams are important and being able to bring them to the new game again would be amazing, but it’s 1B to my 1A.

Full Online Franchise - I know, I know, this is another one that is probably 1A for many people. My point with online franchise has always been that until the mode itself is good, I don’t really want to play it with friends online. We need more customization and commissioner tools and all that in our “normal” franchises first. The Show’s last online franchise mode barely worked, and it wasn’t even a great franchise mode, so it was kind of the worst of both worlds.

Anything is more fun with friends, so even a barely functional online franchise mode was still fun at times, but this implementation should happen after other stuff has already been included.

Additional Trade Slots (expanded to five players) - Yeah, it’s never a bad thing to expand trades in my book. The trade system still needs work but there’s no reason we shouldn’t have beefier trades (and we can still always just do team control to veto deals).

Three Team Trades - Look, this should probably go in the tier below, but multi-team trades are fun to do even if they’re extremely rare. They probably break the trade system in all-new ways, but tinkering with trades is a huge part of any franchise mode.

Middle Tier

Immersive Winter Meetings With Trades - This is one of those things that sounds cool, but it’s something you add after you’ve made the trade system itself more interesting. It’s also something that would probably be cooler with presentation touches. Either way, you only experience the Winter Meetings if you get through a whole season in franchise mode in the first place, and the mode needs to enjoyable enough to want to get through that season.

Let’s focus on things that impact the day-to-day process of playing through a franchise mode before prioritizing the Winter Meetings.

Commissioner Mode (gives you control over everything) - I would think this is similar to the tools you have in NBA 2K, and probably matters more for online franchise. We can already do 30-team control, so it’s the next level down in importance for me.

Custom Draft Classes - If we got Y2Y rosters, then I might bump this up, but the draft classes just need to be better overall. I don’t want the community to have to do them to make them “good” or whatever, I just want the community to be able to make real prospects who haven’t been drafted yet once the MLB Draft itself is better in franchise mode.

Competitive Balance Compensation Draft Rounds/Picks - Obviously it’s a part of making free agency and the draft better, but I don’t think it’s needed right away. However, I think this is one of the easier “realistic” systems to implement that is not currently in the game once you expand the draft overall.

GM Personalities - I’m a big believer in this idea and have written about it in recent months in the context of owners in Madden, but I think this is likely solved better by just making sure teams have proper priorities when they seek out trades and make signings. I would assume the idea here is maybe certain GMs care about certain “ratings” or types of players and have a bias towards them, but this would fall more into the “nice to have” area than “must have” area.

Manager And Coach Personalities And Ratings (and ability to edit them) - I think I get what the idea here would be since we’ve had coaches with ratings in other sports games, but I care more about making the hiring process fun first.

Expanded Sliders For Franchise Mode Like NBA 2K (to cover logic and such) - These sorts of sliders are huge at times in NBA 2K to make things like trades and contracts work better, but they’re only necessary because the mode already has tons of customization and depth. The Show is missing the customization and depth.

Bottom Tier

Fantasy Draft Online Leagues - I’m not sure if this is a feature of online franchise mode or its own “league” mode, but either way it’s low priority to me.

GM RPG Feature Similar to NBA 2K MyGM - No! I think this mode stinks in 2K and is not worth investing the extensive amount of time you would need to in order to make it good. I think it’s a huge presentation investment on top of needing things like Winter Meetings and so forth to make it good. Just make Road to the Show better and invest your presentation money there, we don’t need the RttS equivalent as a GM because it would just mean another mode gets shortchanged.

Revamped Trade Deadline Mini Game (similar to the EA NHL series) - I do think this feature is solid in EA’s game, but I’ve never been a huge fan of making a single day mean a lot when there’s only so many trades that even happen anyway, and you only get to experience it once a season (see: my rationale about the Winter Meetings and where it sits in the priority list). It’s a big time investment from a developer standpoint, so the bang for your buck is low to me.

In the NHL, some of the deadlines can be insane in real life, and there’s a salary cap there to deal with as well, which adds intrigue to the NHL’s trade deadline. I don’t think the MLB trade deadline is really that important for making/breaking teams whether that’s their playoff hopes or dumping guys for prospects. If you make the trade system better overall, the deadline mostly takes care of itself.

Fog Of War On Player Ratings - I don’t believe “fog of war” is very interesting when it impacts all parts of franchise mode. It works to a degree with the draft because it adds the gameplay mechanic that you need to prioritize who your scouts see since you need info, but there really shouldn’t be much “fog” around Mike Trout or whoever.

However, OS user Ghost Of The Year summed up my thoughts about player ratings overall if you wanted to do a full rework of how ratings are presented to the user:

Cash Compensation Added To Trade System - The Show still has a long way to go before stuff like “cash compensation” feels in any way important. Budgets do make a bit more sense this year, but the idea of “cash compensation” is something that really gets at “true” budgeting and the gaps between bigger and smaller markets. This sort of budgeting is not in The Show right now.

In some cases, “cash compensation” is also a sweetener for a deal, but at that point I’d focus on the international signing period money that you can trade before a broader “cash compensation” concept.

A True GM Mode To Simply Watch Games Like OOTP - Don’t we already mostly have this? Just improve CPU vs. CPU. At most, I’d maybe implement a “fast play” feature where it fast forwards the plays (if you want) on stuff like pop-ups or lazy fly balls etc. Make it so you can watch the game, but you can get through the games at a much faster pace. The obvious strength The Show has over OOTP is the visuals, so maintain those but find ways to speed up the games themselves while still getting the chance to watch them play out.

Okay, that’s my list and how I’d prioritize all these features for franchise mode. I’m sure it’s not the exact same as yours, but I hope you’re not foaming at the mouth after reading my takes.

Until next time y’all. And, as always, thanks for reading.

-Chase

Reach out to me with “mailbag” questions whenever you want. I grew up reading Bill Simmons during the rise of the internet, and so I give you the means to hit me up with comments, thoughts, musings, questions, or whatever else you got. Whether you want to tell me your own franchise mode top priorities (or tell me why mine were wrong), explain why no one can ever top Bo Jackson in Super Tecmo Bowl, or talk about why Blue Chips is underrated as a movie, all are welcome. If I get enough responses, I’d love to feature them in future newsletters or in “mailbags” of our own.

Here is the e-mail: [email protected] (and bonus points if you also include your city, name (or alias), and some sort of subject to go along with your thoughts.