Nine Must-Try Players Under 95 OVR in Diamond Dynasty

Moving on from Season 1 to Season 2 in Diamond Dynasty has made OVRs that once looked obsolete into ratings on some of the best cards in the game. And while it’s still both possible to have some of the best cards in Season 1 on your roster thanks to Wild Card slots or to have grinded hard enough to already have some of the best cards from Season 2 available literal months before the season’s endgame has arrived, dozens of cards that will be forgotten in August are compelling in June.

You should use them while they’re still relevant, we say.

Here are nine fine players under 95 OVR to use in Season 2 of Diamond Dynasty in MLB The Show 24.

91 Ken Griffey Jr. / 91 Roy Halladay / 91 Chipper Jones

Maybe the best change for Season 2 in Diamond Dynasty is the increased accessibility of the three players selected as XP Reward Path cappers – Ken Griffey Jr., Roy Halladay, and Chipper Jones. This was achieved by making lesser versions of them available through that XP Reward Path as players progress up it to their 99 OVR Hall of Fame cards, with players obtaining 91 OVR and 95 OVR iterations of all three of that big three as they go.

And though a handful of players have, in fact, advanced all the way on the XP Reward Path to the best versions – the 99 OVR Griffey and Jones have not just thousands of Parallel I and II editions thanks to Battle Royale but at least a few Parallel V completions, insane as that sounds – the 91 OVRs are still meta-relevant cards, and likely will be at least lower-end options until Team Affinity Season 2 Chapter 2 debuts and resets the power curve.

That’s good for the majority of the DD player base that hasn’t no-lifed Season 2, as the 91 Jones is a sweet-swinging switch hitter, the 91 Griffey – representing his later-career stint with the Reds – is a slugger who will mash from the right side, and the 91 Halladay is an innings-eating workhorse who should get deep into games even if he doesn’t have great stuff. The Jones and Griffey are inarguably better than Halladay, if flawed – Jones isn’t nearly as good against righties as he is against lefties, and the aging Griffey, true to life, lacks the athleticism and contact skills the younger superstar had – but all three of these cards are good and free starter versions of what awaits players at the top of the XP mountain.

At least as appetizers and opportunities for players to acclimatize to the players that will rule Season 2’s endgame, they’re must-try almost by definition.

88 Cornerstone Captain Luis Castillo

Also in the bucket of free cards worth a look are the Cornerstone Captains for Season 2 – but the most interesting one of those four by far is Luis Castillo, a Live Series Captain who boosts those cards considerably.

The Castillo itself is no great shakes: At just 88 OVR, it is a lower-end option for the rotation so long as you have put in even a modicum of effort in Team Affinity, and the good velocity and break and decent four-pitch arsenal – including four-seamer, slider, and sinker – are probably not going to overcome that fastball’s lack of movement, which will get lit up by competent opposition.

But you’re really not rostering Castillo to use him, just to unlock the massive Contact, H/9, and BB/9 boosts that you get with 10, 14, or 19 Live Series players alongside him. The +15 to Contact against righties and lefties transforms a lot of Live Series hitters from afterthoughts to awesome options, and while players don’t have too many other options early on in Season 2, committing to a Captain boost build is a way to at least temporarily have a bit of the power sensation that was available at the end of Season 1 – and also, perhaps, to revitalize cards like a Live Series Juan Soto that were swiftly outstripped in Season 1, and never stood a chance of making a roster.

92 Paul Goldschmidt

At the other end of the spectrum of what can be classified as “free” in Diamond Dynasty is Paul Goldschmidt’s 92 OVR card that was dropped as a 10-win reward for the Rickwood Field event. While the card itself won’t cost you a Stub if you play for it rather than buying it off the market, it’s going to take a significant gameplay investment – hours and/or days – to get the 2022 NL MVP in your lineup.

Good news: It’s probably going to be worth it. Heck, this Goldschmidt might just be worth the around 30,000 Stubs you can expect to pay for him if you skip the event. He’s almost a maxed-out lefty masher, with 125 Contact and 120 Power against southpaws, and while he’s limited outside of those stats, those stats play, especially early on in a seasonal cycle.

93 Lee Smith

One pitcher that Goldschmidt with struggle with? The 93 Lee Smith that exists on the XP Reward Path. A pitcher whose aura was intimidating long before aura became the latest bit of played-out teenage slang, Smith’s best cards are some of the most imposing that take the mound in Diamond Dynasty, and this is certainly his best card in MLB The Show 24 so far.

The standout is the fastball, which is about as good as ones without Outlier get, and powers much of his 123 K/9. But his slider, cutter, and forkball provide three ways to attack batters with movement, and not only is the Break on each of them 87 or better, the speed differentials are such that no two of them will be able to be timed similarly.

Of course, the difficulty of Smith is controlling that repertoire, which can get wild quickly. But as free relievers go, this is a premier option – if you’re far enough along on the XP Reward Path that 270K, nearly twice the 140K it takes to unlock the 91 OVR triple pack, is reachable.

91 Aroldis Chapman

On the more expensive but more available side, however, there’s Aroldis Chapman, who does most of what Smith does slightly better and left-handed. (Ginger Rogers would be proud. Sort of.)

The Cuban Missile has an Outlier fastball, and it’s arguably the best in Season 2 so far, with 95 Break augmenting its 99 Velocity beautifully. The wipeout slider is also present, and his circle change is close enough to the slider’s velocity that there are some pitch tunneling possibilities for people who want to get cute with an Aroldis Chapman card.

But let’s be real: You acquire a Chapman card because he throws gas, and as a Season 2 Collection card available for locking in 30 Season 2 cards, this one is effectively a Team Affinity Season 2 Chapter 1 set collection reward, making him a fantastic complement to Smith in any bullpen, if also a flamethrower to mirror him rather than a finesse pitcher to provide a different style. If you can’t hit heat, Chapman and Smith are going to make your kitchen – and the batter’s box – a tough place to be.

92 Trea Turner

If you’re looking for a card that deals well with lefty pitching like Chapman, Trea Turner’s new 92 OVR Incognito Series item – dubbed Triple Trea – is a strong option. His 125/98 Contact/Power split against lefties makes him one of the best right-handed bats in the game on paper even before factoring in his blazing speed.

But the exceptional thing about Turner cards since time immemorial in Diamond Dynasty is a swing that plays exceedingly well against inside pitching. Jamming Turner has been anywhere from difficult to flatly folly in years past, and this card’s ability to turn on balls that would crowd many others should be no different.

It is, of course, a rich man’s option: As a Chase Pack exclusive, you will probably be paying around 100,000 Stubs, if not slightly more, for this Turner on the market. But considering what you get – a shortstop who can rake and run, with positional eligibility at second, third, and center field, and who also has eligibility for both the Giancarlo Stanton and Corbin Carroll Cornerstone Captains that are centered around power and speed, respectively – it might just be worth splurging, especially because this card should keep much of its value after rotating out of packs.

91 Blake Snell

Finally, it’s time to tackle the elephant in the room - and, you know, get rocked to sleep, because tackling an elephant is as stupid as mixing metaphors can be at its worst – and discuss starting pitchers in Season 2 of Diamond Dynasty in MLB The Show 24.

Let’s be honest: They are mostly bad.

The various versions of Halladay are quite good, and his 95 and 99 OVR cards are obviously top-of-meta options. But there are those two cards, a 93 Joe Musgrove who throws a 93 MPH fastball as his primary pitch (and has an Incognito card calling him Moose while there is a similar Mike Mussina in the game), a 92 OVR Charlie Morton with a ridiculous slurve but nothing else better than 94 MPH, and zero other starters above 91 OVR in the Season 2 starter pool at present.

Now, this does have the effect of making the Halladay cards special and powerful in a way like, say, certain Corey Kluber or Clayton Kershaw cards in Diamond Dynasties past did. But it also means that finding an effective starter that stands out from a bunch of similarly-statted also-rans is difficult. Blake Snell’s 91 OVR Hyper Series card is my best pick in that regard.

Most importantly, this Snell is a lefty starter – something that is rare in Season 2, with just Snell. Mussina’s Takashi Okazaki Series card, and a Hyper Series Jordan Montgomery comprising the options for lefty starters above the 89 OVR threshold that exists beyond the breadth of Team Affinity choices. But it’s also got enough velocity (a 96 MPH fastball and an 87 MPH slider and circle change) and break (99 on his fall-off-the-table curveball) to be set apart from Mussina (plenty of break, not that much velo) and Montgomery (distinct lack of both), and has a handful of quirks. 

If you’re looking for a lefty pitcher for baffling hitters in Season 2, it really does not get better than Snell right now – and using him saves one of the precious Wild Card spots that might be better allocated to a hitter or a Captain from Season 1.