Recently, San Diego Studios released the new cover athlete for MLB: The Show and that got me thinking, who are some of the best players that have never been on the cover of the best MLB video game franchise?
For reference, here’s the list of all of the cover athletes for MLB: The Show starting back in 1998. I noticed there were a few big names left out to shout out.
Keep in mind, that these are just my opinions! A lot of you may disagree on a few of these. Before we get into it, I’ll tell you the teams these five players played for to see if you can guess them.
No. 5 – St. Louis Cardinals
No. 4 – Arizona Diamondbacks
No. 3 – San Diego Padres
No. 2 – New York Yankees
No. 1 – Los Angeles Angels
5
Albert Pujols
This one is obvious but I think there is a reason why Pujols was never on the cover of MLB: The Show. It’s because he was the cover athlete for EA Sports MVP Baseball in 2004. Pujols was also on the cover of The BIGS in 2007. Pujols finished his 22-year MLB career with a career average of .296 with a .374 on-base percentage, .544 slugging percentage, and a .918 OPS.
He hit 686 doubles, 16 triples, 703 homers, and 2,218 RBI in his career. Pujols is a three-time MVP (2005, 2008, 2009) and is a future first-ballot Hall of Famer as soon as he becomes eligible.
4
Randy Johnson
I think The Big Unit suffers from the same issue as Pujols — Johnson was on the cover of MVP Baseball in 2003. Johnson is a legendary pitcher and one of the most feared men to ever put his toe to the rubber on the pitcher’s mound.
Johnson was a five-time Cy Young Award winner and he was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2015 as he garnered 97.3% of the votes in his first year of eligibility.
3
Tony Gwynn
When people have conversations about the best hitters of all time in the MLB, the name Tony Gwynn better be brought up or everyone is wrong. During his 20-year career (all with the San Diego Padres) Gwynn only had a batting average below .300 in one season! That one season was his rookie year where he finished with a .289 batting average.
I am an Atlanta Braves fan, so this stat always blew my mind: Tony Gwynn faced the Braves’ big three (Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz) 265 times during his career. He finished 101-for-265 (a .381 batting average) with four homers and 25 extra-base hits against them. Those three pitchers were first-ballot Hall of Famers and Gwynn was their worst nightmare. The fact that Mr. Padre does not get shown as much love as he deserves appalls me.
Gwynn was a five-time Gold Glove Award winner, seven-time Silver Slugger, and an eight-time batting title champion. Gwynn was elected as a first-ballot Hall of Famer in 2007 with Cal Ripken Jr.
2
Mariano Rivera
Another player who I feel does not get a lot of love when it comes to just how great he was. Relief pitchers don’t ever get the spotlight of being on the cover of MLB: The Show, but they should. Whenever your favorite team was playing against the New York Yankees in a close game that was headed into the ninth inning, you knew what was coming.
If the game was being played at Yankee Stadium, Enter Sandman by Metallica would begin playing. At that point, you knew the game was over. You were about to witness one of the slowest wind-ups of all time and your hitters were about to become victims to one of the best cutters in MLB history.
During his 19-year career, Rivera totaled 652 saves and finished 952 games. Both of those stats are good for No. 1 ALL-TIME. Rivera was the 1999 World Series MVP and in 2019, he was elected as a first-ballot Hall of Famer and earned 100% of the votes that year. There were 425 ballots cast that year and every person voted for Rivera. That is how great he was.
1
Mike Trout
Captain America, anyone? If you don’t agree with any of the other picks I have made, I understand. But if you think one of the best players in the history of baseball doesn’t deserve to be on the cover of MLB: The Show, you are just wrong.
Trout has been in the MLB for 13 years now and has yet to be on the cover of MLB: The Show. During that span, he has won three MVP awards, nine Silver Slugger Awards, MLB Rookie of the Year, three-time All-MLB Teams, and he’s an 11-time All-Star.
Here is a list of all the cover athletes that have been on the cover during Trout’s career.
2012: Adrian Gonzalez
2013: Andrew McCutchen
2014: Miguel Cabrera
2015: Yasiel Puig
2016: Josh Donaldson
2017: Ken Griffey Jr.
2018: Aaron Judge
2019: Bryce Harper
2020: Javier Baez
2021: Fernando Tatis Jr.
2022: Shohei Ohtani
2023: Jazz Chisolm
2024: Vladimir Guererro Jr.
What are we even doing? Put Trout on the cover already. Give him his flowers before he retires. He will be a first-ballot Hall of Famer as soon as he becomes eligible.
So, there you have it. There’s my list. Who would you add to the list?
