Team Affinity Season 2 Chapter 1 Breakdown: Best Free 89 OVR Cards, How to Unlock Them

MLB The Show 24’s Diamond Dynasty mode entered Season 2 as of this Friday, June 7, and brought with it Team Affinity Season 2 Chapter 1. While the program’s 30 new cards are 89 OVR – a de-escalation not just from the 99 OVR cards that were part of Team Affinity Season 1 Chapter 3 but the 93 OVR ones that were included in Team Affinity Season 1 Chapter 2 – they will are Season 2 cards, not Season 1 editions, and will still be standard-bearers in Diamond Dynasty for at least a little while. And that means that unlocking the best among them will provide the largest possible head start for Diamond Dynasty players.

Here’s what’s in Team Affinity Season 2 Chapter 1, and how to do the grinding to unlock its rewards most efficiently..

Team Affinity Season 2 Chapter 1 Structure

For the most part, Team Affinity Season 2 Chapter 1 (TAS2C1) is basically the same as Team Affinity programs from Seasons and Sets past in The Show, with six distinct sub-programs and six individual reward paths for each of the six MLB divisions. As each of these programs still requires 200,000 Team Affinity XP to complete, this is the most substantial grind for the first days and weeks of Season 2.

And with only Season 2 eligible cards – Core and Season 2 cards and not the Season 1 cards ushered onto Season 2 rosters via Wild Card slots – generating that XP, it’s going to be a little bit more difficult to make headway in each of those reward paths early on.

Of course, the value is still there: Each TAS2C1 reward path awards 3,500 Stubs, 11,000 Season 2 XP, 10 The Show packs, three Ballin’ is a Habit packs, two Millionaire packs, a random Headliners pack, five packs each containing a choice of one of the five 89 OVR Team Affinity Season 2 Chapter 1 Bosses in each division, and team-specific bat skin unlockables..

Over the six paths, that adds up to 21,000 Stubs, 66,000 Season 2 XP, 60 Show packs, 18 Ballin’ is a Habit packs, six Headliners packs, and 12 Millionaire packs. That’s significantly fewer Stubs than in Team Affinity Season 1 Chapter 3, but it’s also a lot more Season XP – enough to get players to the first Wild Card slot on the Season 2 XP reward path by itself.

How to Grind Team Affinity Season 2 Chapter 1

The ways to obtain Team Affinity XP in TAS2C1 will be very familiar to veteran Diamond Dynasty players. There are Moments, normal and Extreme Showdowns, Conquest maps that cover the AL and NL versions of each division, single-player and multiplayer missions, and all-division and Boss missions requiring Parallel XP, continuing a shift away from more tedious and limiting team-specific ones.

The repeatable missions will, of course, be the best way to grind quickly, so assembling divisional theme teams and grinding up to the 60,000 Team Affinity XP necessary to unlock at least one Boss from each division will remain the best foundation for swift progress – even though there are no card-specific individual missions for each Boss in this iteration.

As is generally the case, the Extreme Showdown is going to be the best way to take a big bite out of Team Affinity for players with the skill and patience to take pitches and wear down the formidable pitchers in that mode. Completing it by vanquishing Rays closer-but-sometimes-opener Ryan Yarbrough – a clever choice for a Final Showdown foe, as none of his pitches should get to even 92 MPH, and his 87 Stamina and propensity for pounding the zone makes exhausting his Energy significantly more difficult than with most relievers – will earn 20,000 XP for all six Team Affinity subprograms, which translates to about 10 percent of the progress bar for maybe an hour’s work if done well and just once. But that Final Showdown is on the vaunted, dreaded Legend difficulty, and even the full complement of TAS2C1 Boss hitters players will have if they complete the eight matchups before meeting Yarbrough will struggle against him unless players have Legend-level skills.

More forgiving is the basic Showdown, which culminates in a meeting with the Astros’ Forrest Whitley on Veteran. For this, players can earn four Team Affinity Season 2 Chapter 1 XP vouchers worth 3,000 XP each – so the regular Showdown technically permits players to make slightly more progress toward a single program than the Extreme one does, though the Extreme Showdown’s breadth of XP is obviously wider.

Usefully, there are also vouchers in Mini Seasons and the Conquest maps, and missions pertaining to just those modes, so triple- or quadruple-dipping on XP with a theme team or Bosses on the roster remains possible. Online, players can also make TAS2C1 progress in all of Ranked, Battle Royale, Events, and even Ranked Co-Op, with three specific missions for the latter mode in each program being a welcome upgrade from the one per Chapter in Season 1.

Taking all of that into account, here are the strategies to employ when grinding for and choosing TAS1C3 Bosses.

Breaking Down Team Affinity Season 2 Chapter 1’s Bosses

Here are some thoughts on the best, most valuable, and least crucial Team Affinity Season 2 Chapter 1 cards in each division

AL East

Best card: Orioles RF Anthony Santander

First choice: Rays CP Ryan Yarbrough

Last choice: Yankees CF Clint Frazier

The AL East boasts four hitters and a pitcher in its Boss mix, so by default the best first pick is the pitcher, even if Yarbrough is no great arm. Being able to use him well as either a starter or a long reliever should be a boon for XP accumulation, though. 

Santander’s switch-hitting seems like it will play up, especially if players bring the Carlos Santana Captain card forward as their first Wild Card choice in Season 2, and he plays a fine right field even if his Speed is a touch low. Tristan Casas is a righty-mashing lefty at first base, while Bo Bichette should have similar success against lefties, but neither is a great defender, and Frazier is simply unexciting in most ways.

AL Central

Best card: Twins SS Royce Lewis

First choice: Tigers SP Matt Manning

Last choice: Guardians 2B Owen Miller

Lewis seems close to breaking out as a superstar in the actual MLB if he can remain healthy, and his card having a formidable 93/101 Contact/Power split against righties as a right-handed hitter is nice even if his numbers against lefties are suspect, but the real draw is the 115 Batting Clutch that should make him a monster with runners in scoring position. None of the other hitters in this division have better than a 106 in that stat.

But Manning is the clear No. 1 pick in the division as its only pitcher, and his 6’6” frame and classic pitch mix – four-seamer, curveball, changeup, sinker, 12-6 curver – should allow him to go high and low on batters even without much horizontal break.

White Sox catcher Zack Collins provides the classic power hitter archetype for a catcher with Power numbers that well outstrip his Contact stats, and he’s a lefty bat. Hunter Dozier is a fairly forgettable first baseman. Owen Miller is unremarkable even as second basemen go.

The AL Central should probably not be the primary focus of your Season 2 efforts early on.

AL West

Best card: Athletics CF Mark Canha

First choice: Astros SP Forrest Whitley

Last choice: Mariners CF Jarred Kelenic

The AL West’s player mix is downright bizarre. Between Whitley, Canha, Angels first baseman Jared Walsh, and Mariners left fielder Jarred Kelenic, four of the players in this pack have made a grand total of one appearance for the teams they are pictured with on these cards in 2024, with Whitley’s appearance for the Astros lasting two outs and Canha (Tigers), Kelenic (Braves), and Walsh (Rangers and White Sox) plying their trade elsewhere, Walsh doing so within the same division. And Rangers outfielder Leody Taveras has thus far posted a negative Wins Above Replacement for Texas, marking this as a fivesome of players that virtually no fan of their teams will really want to use.

That all aside, Whitley is the default first pick as the only pitcher, Canha has a 116/99 Contact/Power split against righties with an exquisite swing and great positional flexibility, Walsh has some appealing Power numbers and a 108/95 combo against righties as a left-handed first baseman, and Kelenic and Taveras are very similar fungible but forgettable outfielders, with Taveras having switch-hitting as a tiebreaker.

NL East

Best card: Mets C Francisco Alvarez

First choice: Marlins CP Tanner Scott

Last choice: Phillies SS J.P. Crawford

The NL East’s Team Affinity Season 2 Chapter 1 Bosses have three positional logjams to overcome. Are you playing Alvarez over a Mike Piazza catcher card as a Mets fan? Eddie Rosario over Ronald Acuna Jr. in right on a Braves theme team? Could J.P. Crawford ever conceivably dislodge Jimmy Rollins at short on a Phillies theme team for more than a day

The answers to those questions are probably no, no, and no. but Alvarez does have a strong bat and fine defense, Rosario’s scintillating 2021 postseason is what is being represented on his Clutch-rich card, and Crawford … well, he’s probably the worst card in this bunch even considering the punchless Victor Robles is the Nationals’ pick, as a shortstop with deceptive Diamond defense and just 81 in Arm Strength. (He does have eligibility at second base, though.)

But Scott has an argument to be the best card in this quintet, as he can get away with a three-pitch mix and a primary slider for a while as premium relievers are once again in short supply at the beginning of Season 2. And relievers who come in and mow down batters are among the easiest cards to accrue XP with in Diamond Dynasty, which makes him a no-brainer first pick.

NL Central

Best card: Cardinals LF Dylan Carlson

First choice: Pirates SP Mitch Keller

Last choice: Brewers SP Josh Hader

Finally, in the NL Central, we get a division with not one, not two, but three pitchers to choose from, including the very intriguing starting pitcher version of Josh Hader whom the Brewers used there before converting him to a bullpen beast. Unfortunately, he’s the least of the three arms available here unless players really like throwing with lefties, with Keller and Reds starter Robert Stephenson having very similar profiles and the same four-pitch mix – four-seamer, slider, curve, change – that is effective but uninspiring. Keller gets a slight edge here because of a slight edge in velocity, but any of the three would be a fine first choice.

The hitters might be more interesting, though, with the Cards’ Carlson and Cubs right fielder Jason Heyward showing up as options for those two rival squads. Heyward’s swing is better than his stats suggest and is a superb defender, but Carlson’s got an all-around game, hits switch, and has the added flexibility of fitting at first, so he gets the edge over both Heyward and the division’s pitchers as its best card.

NL West

Best card: Diamondbacks SP Merrill Kelly

First choice: Kelly

Last choice: Rockies 2B Garrett Hampson

The NL West definitely holds the dubious distinction of having the rarest card in all of this Team Affinity release in the form of Dodgers 2B Gavin Lux’s MLB The Show Players League card, a relic of a time when COVID-19 prompted Sony San Diego to present virtual games between MLB players in lieu of real ones outside in the world. And as lefty shortstops go, that Lux is at least better than the Phillies’ Crawford.

But Kelly has both an almost ideal five-pitch mix – four-seamer, cutter, slider, sinker at almost the same speed as the four-seamer, and changeup – and pitcher-goes-first priority. 

Padres hurler Adrian Morejon, who has made one start since 2021, is nevertheless here as an underwhelming but admittedly left-handed starter, and Giants catcher Joey Bart is here as possibly a less exciting catcher than the Live Series Gold Patrick Bailey that Giants fans could have for about, oh, 700 Stubs, albeit one with a little pop to his bat.

Special commendation must be given to SDS for also reviving Hampson’s speed-only second baseman card from the 2019 Topps Now releases, as he has managed to carve out a niche on the Royals roster in 2024 and definitely enables bunt cheese with his nearly maxed-out speed stats. If you would ever like to hit a double, Hampson is probably not the card for you.