In the world of sports, one of the greatest honors an individual player can earn is appearing on the cover of a sports video game. For growing your individual brand, there are few better achievements. For a year, anytime a fan wants to play their favorite sports game, they see the cover star’s face, bringing a newfound level of prominence to that player. For baseball players, MLB The Show is the name-brand game that players are gunning for.
San Diego Studio recently announced Miami Marlins second baseman Jazz Chisholm as the cover star for MLB The Show 23. While Chisholm is an exciting young player, he’s largely unproven at the big-league level, making him a strange choice to feature. Chisholm could certainly end up deserving of the honor by season’s end, but choosing him now could be detrimental to the game’s future.
Jazz Chisholm Hasn’t Achieved Much Yet
In the past, MLB The Show’s cover athletes have typically been players who defined the previous season, something that Chisholm decidedly did not do. He plays for the Miami Marlins, a team that finished as one of the worst last season and doesn’t look to be that much better in 2023. To his credit, Chisholm did earn a spot in the 2022 MLB All-Star Game, but that honor was based on a very small sample of games. He played in only 60 games last season, meaning he only appeared in a third of the marlin’s games.
In terms of value, there’s a fair argument to be made that Chisholm is the worst player to ever appear on the cover of MLB The Show. Using the Wins Above Replacement (WAR) stat to gauge a player’s value in the season prior to their cover appearance, Chisholm is easily the least notable player of the group, with only 2.4 WAR and minimal career achievements.
Since the franchise’s debut in 2006, there have been 17 cover stars with an average WAR of 5.3, more than double Chisholm’s. The only players close to him in terms of value were Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard (2.9 WAR), Washington Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper (1.8 WAR), and San Diego Padres shortstop Fernando Tatis (2.8 WAR). However, Howard was coming off winning the MVP and Rookie of the Year awards in the seasons prior. Harper was one of the most popular players in baseball and had already won an MVP, Rookie of the Year, and six All-Star honors by the time he was featured. Tatis’ number was low because of the COVID-shortened 2020 season in which there were only 60 games to be played rather than the typical 162.
So, if the only other low-value players to appear as cover stars were MVPs, multiple-time All-Stars, and the best player in a pandemic-shortened season, it leaves plenty of questions as to why Chisholm was MLB The Show’s choice for the 2023 edition. There were plenty of other players who were seemingly more deserving, leaving fans in the dark as to why an unaccomplished player is gracing the cover of the name-brand baseball video game, even if he is fairly well-liked.
MLB The Show Had Better Options
Sports games’ relationships with their cover stars are typically two-way affairs. The game promotes the player, while the player’s presence on the game helps drive sales. In this case, it appears that MLB The Show 23 is helping Chisholm much more than the other way around.
It’s understandable that San Diego Studio wanted to pick a player on the rise, but if that was the case, there were several other options they could have gone with. The best example is Julio Rodriguez, the Seattle Mariners' 22-year-old phenom who just won the AL Rookie of the Year award and was one of the best players in MLB in 2022. The NL Rookie of the Year, Atlanta Braves outfielder Michael Harris II, also would have been an excellent choice.
Other 2022 award winners could have been better options for MLB The Show 23. NL MVP Paul Goldschmidt has quietly been one of the best players in baseball throughout his lengthy career, and it would have been a nice honor to see him on The Show's cover. NL Cy Young winner Sandy Alcantara just completed one of the most dominant pitching seasons in recent memory, racking up strikeouts while being allowed to pitch deep into games, a strategy that has recently gone out of style for most starting pitchers. He didn't win any awards, but New York Mets closer Edwin Diaz was one of the defining players of the 2022 MLB season. His signature warm-up song Narco by Timmy Trumpet went viral across social media, and his dominance earned him the largest contract for a relief pitcher in MLB history.
Two of the best players from last season were Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani. There were heated debates over which generational superstar deserved the AL MVP award before Judge ultimately won out. Both have already been featured as cover stars, but they would have made excellent choices to be featured again, just like when Joe Mauer was the cover star in back to back editions.
Another solid option would be Los Angeles Angels superstar Mike Trout. Trout is easily the best player of this generation, yet he has never appeared on the cover of MLB The Show. It’s possible he was simply uninterested in the honor, but either way, it’s clear that San Diego Studio had plenty of other choices beyond Jazz Chisholm. An unproven star on a bad team simply can't be the best way for MLB to market a sport that is seemingly on the decline.
MLB The Show 23 is scheduled to release on March 28, 2023, for Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
