Jazz Chisholm is a Strange Choice for MLB The Show Cover Athlete
It was certainly perplexing when San Diego Studios named Jazz Chisholm as the cover athlete for the newest addition of their baseball video game, MLB The Show 23. While Chisholm is certainly a rising star, putting him on the cover right now came across as strange.
Being on the cover of a sports video game is certainly one of the biggest honors that a player can receive. When you dawn the cover of a game, you represent the league. You also represent your organization, your teammates and your country. One of the most memorable cover athletes in this MLB The Show series was David Ortiz on the cover of MLB 06: The Show. Dating back to MLB The Show 18, Chisholm is the second youngest to earn the cover, with only Fernando Tatis Jr. dawning the cover at a younger age in 2021.
I mean no disrespect to Chisholm at all. He’s certainly a rising star and a good player. But The Show is banking on Jazz having an MVP-type year for Miami, they’re not certain of it. While Chisholm was an All-Star, he only played in 60 games last season before going down with a back injury. 60! Isn’t the cover athlete supposed to be coming off an MVP-type season?
Chisholm is just not there as a player yet. Hopefully, he proves me wrong.
What’s With The Hitter Bias?
One trend that diehard fans — or even just the trained eye can realize — every single MLB The Show cover athlete has been a hitter — every single one since MLB ’98 on the original PlayStation. This fact just seems shortsighted on the part of San Diego Studios. Pitching is quite literally half the battle in this sport, and it’s just shocking that there has never been a pitcher as the main athlete. You can count Shohei Ohtani, MLB The Show 2022, but even he is shown rounding the bases with a batter’s helmet on in the cover photo.
I’d argue that this would have been the year to do it. There were plenty of elite pitchers this past season, and the best hitters had already been cover athletes previously. Aaron Judge was the cover in 2018. Ohtani was the cover as said in ’22, and Bryce Harper in 2019. I suppose that you could have had Paul Goldschmidt on the cover, but does he have the pop and personality of a cover athlete? You tell me.
Edwin Díaz’s Case
I’d argue this was the best year for a pitcher because of one man. His name is Edwin Díaz.
Díaz was the definition of elite from the beginning to the end of last season. He was the man who the game could have made an unhittable player card of. He was the pitcher that was easily the most feared reliever in the game last year. Imagine logging onto your favorite video game and hearing the trumpets blasting in the intro. That would get me fired up. Not to mention they included “Narco,” the viral Díaz walkout song, in the 2023 game itself.
All in all, Díaz got hurt anyway and won’t even play this year, so maybe he wouldn’t have been the best cover for the game. I don’t know. I just don’t think Chisholm is the best option. If you’re going to go with a bat, make it Goldschmidt, Julio Rodríguez, José Ramírez, or maybe even Trea Turner, who would have been cool in his new threads.
I’m going to look like an idiot if Jazz Chisholm has an MVP-type season. I have a feeling I’ll be coming back to this article.
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