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@StinkyMcPooter_XBL Just to clarify, MLB rules are that all 40 man players are considered on the MLB roster at the beginning of each "new year". I believe the new year begins the day after the WS ends. That's one way MLB uses to keep some teams from accumulating too many good players and just stashing them in the minors.

Lots of good information in this post to digest. Haven't spent enough time on MLBTS26, but for all prior years the one problem I always see is the CPU promoting good prospects to the 40 man too early and way before required. By the time their 3 option years are up, some still aren't MLB ready. This not only takes up 40 man spots but eventually causes the 26 man to have the sub 70 players mentioned. As this keeps happening it continues to get worse. Maybe the game should have a default that players aren't added to the 40 man until they get to 70 OVR or are Rule 5 eligible. Maybe the 70 can be a moving target based on the overall OVR of the league.

For teams classified as rebuilding, CPU logic should be the team signs veteran players to 1-2 year deals to fill out their 40 man rather than filling with in-house prospects that have lower OVRs. For rebuilding teams the logic needs to be build this team to win in 3 years, not this year. Any vets signed this year are expressly for the purpose of trade capital at the deadline. Continue to groom prospects so they are ready to contribute in 3 years.

I wonder if anyone has tracked whether the CPU automatically rules out pitchers that start the game under a certain energy level. This could explain, as maybe Abreu is last man in the bullpen that day. Otherwise seems like a bug...thanks for submitting either way.

For Senga, I can understand continuing to roll with a starter that is having an awesome game.

Sorry. Wrong face scan.

Great job dissecting the issue. Curious how it would handle these players if you carried this through to the beginning of the regular season.

Sim a day, check transactions for waivers and injuries, make roster changes if necessary, repeat. I manage a few games individually before the trade deadline and a few after the deadline, then manage all the playoff games.

Sliders at default except randomizing injury slider each month between 5 and 7 and increasing trade slider each month by 1 starting at 3.

I'm one who said the game was too easy. Even with self imposed limits for # of trades, only trading for players that realistically should be on the block, trading away good talent in return (not 3 C prospects), auto-scouting, and a lower than allowed team budget, I was able to win 7 championships with the Angels in 23 seasons. And I'm only playing on manager mode, so I'm not even manipulating the game with my ability to work the controller.

As for trading, my issue previously was rebuilding teams were acquiring rental players and not doing enough to move their own rental players, while playoff teams were moving their franchise players that were under good team control. The trade block hadn't been "up" during spring training, which I know has been fixed. CPU teams were only trading one player for 1-3 players; no multi-player for multi-player trades, which I also believe has been fixed.

Had to shelve MLBTS26 right after starting, so one month into 2026 didn't give me enough time for judgment. Hope to get back to it next month.

I've always had this issue, although it's only the notification at the end of each month about minor league players and whether they had a good or bad month. I usually get notified for 6 players from my team and 1-2 players from other teams. Could never pin down how to completely eliminate.

Thanks for posting...good to know. I'm close to starting my franchise and this was one of the items I wanted to see if SDS touched. My complaint was CPU teams do nothing to improve their scouts beyond what is randomly done during the offseason. CPU teams don't try to maximize their $300,000. However, that is completely different than you situation where you shouldn't be losing a scout mid season. From everything I've tracked since they changed scouting a few years ago, this appears to be a new bug.

Yep, not looking for it to be in next year...just sometime down the road when it makes sense

I concur and made similar suggestions at the end of last year. My suggestion was for each role (owner, GM, manager) to have a different philosophy that impacts the game.

With years of carpel tunnel issues, I'm on manager mode only. My enjoyment comes from trying to build the Angels into a winner (obviously it takes many years), so I play 1-2 games early in season, 1-2 games after the all star break to ensure I've seen all the players, then play all the playoff games so I can get through a season in 1-2 weeks. Fun to see players you've drafted and then all the way through to retirement. Made it to 2048 for MLBTS25.

Started in spring training and there were anywhere between 5-20 players per team listed as untouchable, obviously mostly key current players and top future prospects. There were only 2 Top 100 prospects that weren't listed as untouchable. Fast forward to a week into the season; the number of untouchables has dropped significantly. I didn't count how many Top 100 prospects are still on the untouchable list, but 30 of them are now on the trade block.

I know what you mean about the prospects. My Halos are missing a bunch of prospects...the 5 prospects they got in return for Ohtani...oh sorry, that didn't happen. Also the 4 other prospects they gave up because they thought they were in it during Ohtani's last season...before immediately falling on their face. No, I think SDS got this one right...Farm Rank 30. This is why MLB needs to change their revenue distribution system. Instead of equal for all, pay division winners $300M and last place teams $30M. Incentivize winning. Force owners like Arte that continue to lose (either because of effort or incompetence) into a situation where they have to sell because they're losing money.

Top right....support...repot a bug...be specific. With Skubal's contract I can possibly understand why arb prices for SP being higher, because actually he could have gotten even more if he would have asked for it, but if it's limiting even singing FA minor leaguers in future year to fill out the 93 man limit, this is definitely a problem.

That sounds like a great idea. I know mlbtr does a pretty good job on arb projections.

Prospects aren't dealt as much as it seems. Soto was the last trade that involved multiple top 100 prospects, but in the 3 years since only 1 top 50 prospect has been moved (DeVries - SD->ATH). You ask the question I'll be most curious about. When the team's status changes from normal to rebuild or playoffs, will the rebuilding team's rental players be put on the trade block, and will the playoff team's prospects become available?

@PriorFir4383355_XBL I can only speak to Franchise. Probably spent 1,500+ hours on MLBTS25. After about 3 months I submit feedback directly to SDS on improvements that can be made and I've seen a lot of those come to fruition with the changes they've made the last few years to scouting/drafting, free agency and now trading. When I noticed an error in the salary cap calculations for traded players, I submitted and they fixed it in the very next game update. My submissions are reasonable, logical and detailed so they clearly understand the point I'm trying to make. Besides trading, it looks like a few other points I had about the level of competition by the CPU have been addressed, but I guess we'll see in the next few days. I've only played since MLBTS20, so it seems like a lot of improvement to me.

I think SDS's 2 problems are: 1) gamers think every change is easy and can be made immediately AND 2) SDS doesn't communicate very well. I would have been more content playing 24 and 25 if I knew they had these changes coming for trade hub in 26. We would all be happier if we knew SDS was working on online franchise, even if they didn't think they could achieve it until 2028. SDS would be better telling us it's coming but not until 2028, or simply tell us it doesn't make sense because of X, Y & Z. (I'd like online franchise, but it's also not in my top 50 of things to improve about Franchise). Ideally SDS should annually share their goals list of target improvements, along with the date they expect to achieve. Owner/GM/Manager personality traits that affect the game by 2029? Full 165 man minor leagues with all 4 affiliates by 2030? Expanded scouting/draft/players in total to go along with it? AI announcing by 2032?

@alstl04_PSN I can understand SDS trying to create more unpredictability to match real life, but there are 3 reasons why a player doesn't become who they are expected to be. 1) Scouting, 2) Player Development or 3) Injury. I also did the math a few years ago when they first started fog of war. About 80% of the time I could predict +/- 1 of what the prospect was expected to be. That seems reasonable. If you're saying you can 100% predict what they're going to be, SDS should make revisions to make some uncertainty, as no scout in The Show or IRL is 100% for either Pitchers or POS Players. Player development is too predictable, as the player will grow to their potential unless they age out. The issue is their potential number only varies up/down 1-2 points. Seems like the variance should be bigger and that player progression across attributes shouldn't be as linear as it is. In The Show I've never had a player lose potential (other than drafting an injured prospect) due to injury. My conclusion is SDS should address all 3 areas rather than just trying to "fix" by deepening the fog of war on scouting.

I definitely agree with you about more draft picks. I'd like to see it moved to the full 20 rounds, but that would also require giving us a full 165 man minor league squad and adding both "A" ball teams. I see where this could be overwhelming to some gamers, so maybe this can be part of their franchise streamline settings where the gamer chooses how many minor league affiliates they have and the game scales accordingly the # of draft picks and number of minor league players. I also think there needs to be more players in the draft pool. Only having 200 prospects for 190+ draft slots isn't realistic. More draft pool players introduced into the game annually would help realistically force out low OVR and older players. Jackson Chourio is still in my game at age 43, which isn't necessarily a problem, except that he hasn't played in the majors for 10 seasons.

International signings in The Show might hinge on the upcoming CBA. During the last negotiations there was serious discussion about moving to a true worldwide draft, and I think with the perception that the Dodgers were able to easily sign 2 top flight SPs from Japan the last few years, I think a majority of owners might want that changed.

To document my scouting point, I went off autoscout and did it manually for my 2048 season. Also of note I'm running 30 team control so I can see everything that the CPU teams are doing. The CPU teams on average scouted 27 players, while I scouted 90. This also gave me a huge advantage for signability, as players had a lot more interest in my team. I was able to sign 5 of the 6 players on the first day of signing. Using Discovery provided 3 prospects that were originally Not Rated that I took in the first 4 rounds, and all 4 draft picks were scouted in the top 20 of prospects. A CPU team drafted 6th overall and took a SP that they scouted 100%, but was 65th on their draft board and projected by them with mid "C" potential. I could better understand if they scouted him as an "A" potential that turns out to be a "C" bust. The CPU teams also do not actively improve their scouts, whereas I can. None of this is realistic. While this exercise reminded me that scouting is fun, the lack of competitiveness by the CPU in this area forces me to leave it on autoscout so it's a level playing field. Otherwise your just playing the game with a cheat code. Perhaps if The Show had sliders where you can ratchet up how competitive the CPU is.

This also highlighted what you said that there should be more scouts. All teams should have completed some scouting on at least half the draft pool.

@alstl04_PSN This generational talent issue came up 2 years ago when they first revised the scouting system. There were a few easily identifiable attribute totals and gaps that you could look for to identify a generational talent, if there was any for that draft. That item was resolved for last year's game. I'm guessing he was referencing that issue, as I haven't seen anyone document being able to do that for 25.

I don't remember specifics on the prior scouting, but the revised scouting has always been a fog of war. You can scout someone 100%+ and still only have a range that they fall into, and they can still turn out to be a bust, just like IRL.

My only problem with the current scouting is any concerted scouting effort I make gets me about 5 times the info that the CPU teams get, so to make it competitive I only use autoscout. That takes away some of the immersion into the game.

For anybody that played whatever online franchise was in The Show years ago, got a couple questions. Did it function well? Did you get 30 players, or just as many as you could and all other teams were CPU? Could you re-assign teams as CPU if a player dropped out? Did you play all 162 or was there some simming to get through the season? Maybe it doesn't matter what The Show did years ago, so what to other sports online franchises do?