Somehow, the people at San Diego Studios (makers of the game) and the MLBPA came to the conclusion that Jazz Chisholm would be the next athlete to grace the cover of the MLB The Show franchise.

Granted, Chisholm is a great personality and character… his play on the field states otherwise. As a career .243 avg hitter with .754 OPS, I can name a couple of players who would have probably sold an extra 100,000 copies strictly based off the fact that they are, well, who they are.

Aaron Judge for example, coming off of the historic AL HR record season, would have sold just a few more copies strictly based off the fact that he wears a Yankee jersey, and kids love him.

I’d love to see Vlad Jr. on the cover, talk about a MVP caliber player who hasn’t been on the cover with a larger than life persona.

Maybe, you know, the greatest player of all time? Mike Trout. Just a thought.

How about a dual MVP cover, with Judge and Goldschmidt?

Maybe mix it up and throw a pitcher on the cover? Justin Verlander coming off his Cy Young and World Series winning season? Granted, a player switching teams in his new jersey on the cover might be kind of weird, but also kind of cool.

Honoring one of the greatest players of all-time who’s career came to an end this season – Albert Pujols?

Just to name a few off the top of my head who I feel more deserving to be cover athletes that aren’t listed above:

Juan Soto, Ronald Acuna, Jeremy Pena, Jose Ramirez, Jacob deGrom (also new uniform), Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, Manny Machado, and the list goes on. These are just some of the “favorite players” in the world of baseball, and Jazz Chisholm doesn’t begin to reach their level of fandom.

Don’t get me wrong, Chisholms personality and sense of humor is electric, however when it comes to being the cover athlete, I think that position is reserved for the games top players, and while Chisholm was an All-Star last season… I think you’d be hard pressed to find 100 kids at the local elementary schools to tell you what team he is on, or even what position he plays. Maybe 3-4 years from now, he will become a top of the world player and I will be eating my words, but this is a huge miss for the marketing team who handles MLB The Show.

Till Next Time,
Trevor