MLB The Show '25 Features A Trio of Athletes on the Cover For The First Time
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David Ortiz was the first athlete to earn the cover of MLB: The show in 2006. And each year since there has been a new athlete featured, with the exception of 2010 and 2011 when Joe Mauer got both covers.
This year, though, they've decided to triple that, and the 2025 installation of will feature Paul Skenes, Elly de la Cruz, and Gunnar Henderson, three young and budding superstars.
It's an incredibly genius marketing strategy. Getting three of the most popular young stars on one cover! It covers at least fans of three markets in one shot, not to mention the fans of these players and teams out of their markets. Topps is even joining the party, and you can to with your very own Topps Now card!
𝐉𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐈𝐍: The cover for MLB The Show 25 is now its own trading card!
— Topps (@Topps) January 28, 2025
Available now! ⏰ pic.twitter.com/6cuUck07Gz
Let's look at some of the coolest cards for each of these players.
1. Paul Skenes
This is just speculation, but the best card for Paul Skenes has not been seen in public yet. It's the 1/1 debut patch auto from Topps Chrome Update, recently pulled by an 11-year old collector from the west coast.
2. Elly De La Cruz
One of the highest selling Elly De La Cruz card went for six figures on Goldin. The final sale, according to their site, was $116,534 with the buyer's premium. It's a gorgeous card and looks real crisp with that gold against Elly in the black jersey and the Cincinnati Reds red.
3. Gunnar Henderson
Although not a high value card, I think this is one of the best cards of Gunnar. It's clean, the gradient is fantastic and it is the first year Topps put the Spotlight inserts in Bowman. It looks even greater in one of seven of the different parallels.
After graduating from the University of North Dakota in 2008, Cole worked as an advertising copywriter until shifting to print journalism a few years later. Managing three weekly newspapers in the Dakotas, Cole won numerous awards from the North Dakota Newspaper Association including Best of the Dakotas and, their top award, General Excellence. He returned to collecting in 2021 and has since combined his passion for writing with his love of cards. Cole also writes for the Sports Cards Nonsense newsletter and has made guest appearances on multiple sports card collecting podcasts including Sports Cards Nonsense, and the Eephus Baseball Cards Podcast. IG: coleryan411 X: @colebenz