Topps Isn't Making Anymore Rookie Cards in 2025
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Baseball is a unique sport for many reasons. Unlike football and basketball, where most rookies make their debuts at the start of the season, baseball rookies debut throughout the entire season. This makes it more complicated when determining the best rookie card for a baseball player. The end of May marks a cut off date for rookies to get their cards in 2025 product.
Topps has three major base card releases for their flagship product each year: Series 1, released at the start of the season, Series 2, released in the middle of the season and Update, released at the end of the season.
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Historically, the cutoff date for a player to appear as a rookie in that year's product has been around the last weekend in May to the first week of June. For example, Elly De La Cruz made his debut on June 6, 2023. Since this was after the cutoff, he wasn't included as a rookie in 2023 products. Instead, his official rookie cards didn’t appear until 2024 Series 1.
![2023 Topps Now - [Base] #392 - Call-Up - Elly De La Cruz](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,x_0,y_0,w_0,h_0/c_fill,w_16,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/voltaxMediaLibrary/mmsport/si_collects/01jwv341ghwf9p14bxhg.jpg "2023 Topps Now - [Base] #392 - Call-Up - Elly De La Cruz")
That didn’t stop him from getting cards in 2023, but they didn’t feature the rookie logo. Instead, they had the “Call-Up” logo, including his Topps Now card commemorating his debut.
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One of Seattle’s top prospects also made his debut and hit a walk-off in his first game. However, because his debut came after the cutoff date, he is another player who won’t be included as a rookie until next year.
New Now pic.twitter.com/seYmztgOBk
— BlowoutBuzz.com (@BlowoutBuzz) June 2, 2025
A few years ago, before Topps Now debut cards became as popular as they are today, it wasn’t always obvious whether a player who debuted midseason would be included in that year’s product or not. This means that all the "rookies" who make their debut during the rest of this season will not be in Topps Update they will be in 2026 Series 1.
On one hand, having an early-season cutoff helps ensure that Series 1 of the next year features a strong checklist of top rookies. On the other hand, if a player is called up around this point in the season, there’s a good chance they’ll play more than half the year—making a strong case for their rookie card to appear in the current year’s product.
Adam has been a sports content creator since 2016, initially focusing on creating sports-related graphics for his Instagram page. In 2018, he transitioned to writing and podcasting about sports cards. Since then, he has worked both independently and with companies within the industry, producing podcasts, videos, and written content on sports cards.
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