Pitchers in MLB The Show 25 Diamond Dynasty are your most important commodity. Even if you’re an elite hitter in the game, it’s going to be hard to consistently win games without solid pitchers to choose from. But finding a good pitcher means more than just grabbing ones with high overall ratings — if that were the case, people wouldn’t be complaining about Walker Buehler right now after grinding for him in Diamond Quest.
The key to pitching in MLB The Show 25 is finding those “meta” players who give you great value while possessing all the predictors for success in Diamond Dynasty. This means pitchers with good pitch mixes, breaking stuff, and/or velocity. But who are the best meta options in the game right now?
Obviously, this list isn’t complete, and it will certainly need updating as the year goes on. But here are some good meta pitchers I’ve had success with in Diamond Dynasty so far this year.
Best Meta Pitchers In MLB The Show 25 Right Now
Garrett Crochet – 87-Rated Topps Now
One of the best young pitchers in baseball right now, Garrett Crochet is set up perfectly for a breakout season with the Boston Red Sox this season. And in MLB The Show 25, he’s one of the best pitchers you can currently pick up at this stage of the game.
The 25-year-old left-hander has arguably the best pitch mix a pitcher can have — a lively fastball, cutter, sweeper, circle change, and a sinker. And while it’s not on Darren O’Day levels of ridiculous, his delivery can be hard for hitters to pick up on, especially if you are effectively changing speeds and tunneling.
Best yet, Crochet can be earned entirely for free by completing a Diamond Quest campaign. If Diamond Quest ain’t your thing, he’s available on the Marketplace for less than 10k Stubs.
Clay Buchholz – 85-Rated Jolt Series
Like Crochet, Clay Buchholz is another starting pitcher with a five-pitch mix. Though he doesn’t have much in the way of velocity, the former Red Sox ace does generate good movement on his breaking pitches.
What makes Buchholz so usable and hard to read at this stage of the game is the differential when it comes to his pitches’ velocities. Sure, a 94-MPH sinker might not look overpowering on paper. But when you discover that he throws a slow 78-MPH curveball and 82-MPH circle change, that sinker might as well have an outlier perk attached to it.
Buchholz is earned through the Boston Red Sox Team Affinity program. And he is certainly worth the small grind.
Hoby Milner – 84-Rated New Threads
When it comes to his per-9 attributes, Hoby Milner is far from the best relief pitcher out there. But Milner’s viability isn’t in his attributes — it’s in his delivery.
A submarine pitcher with an incredibly pronounced delivery, Milner will frustrate righty and left batters alike with his slow breaking balls, deceptively quick fastball, and pinpoint control. Even on higher difficulties, a perfect pitch delivery from Milner will result in the pitch ending up pretty much exactly where you want it. This allows you to dot the corners or get batters to whiff on stuff that looks like a strike until it’s not.
Despite being a gold-rated player, Milner’s New Threads card costs anywhere from 5k to 6k in Stubs at the time of writing. But even if you don’t pack him in one of the Deluxe New Threads packs you’ll be earning over time, Milner is worth buying on the Marketplace. He’s a good bullpen arm at a time when such players aren’t very common, and he matches up favorably against the lefty-heavy selection of viable hitters.
Max Scherzer – 88-Rated New Threads
I won’t lie, I wasn’t too stoked on Max Scherzer being the top reward for completing the New Threads program when it was announced last week. In past iterations of The Show, I’ve struggled with the 3-time Cy Young Award winner. But for some reason, I’ve really enjoyed using this card.
Despite him not having any pitch with arm-side action, the slider-slurve combo, along with the cutter, has proven effective against batters thus far. Like Buchholz, he’s not going to be blinding hitters with velo. That said, because all of his pitches break similarly to one another, Scherzer creates a ton of tunneling opportunities that can keep even the strongest of hitters off-balance should your location be good.
I won’t lie — Scherzer will probably be among the first pitchers phased out once SDS starts dropping pitchers with 90+ overalls. But if you’re on a budget and need a strong right-handed pitcher for the bottom of your rotation, then you can do a whole lot worse than “Mad Max.”
Devin Williams – 83-Rated Live Series
Thus far, we’ve only talked about special pitchers. But don’t get it twisted — there are plenty of Live Series pitchers who you can insert into your team right now and be viable. One of them is Yankees closer Devin Williams.
At first glance, his 83 OVR can make some hesitant to pick him up. But Williams’ per-9’s are terrific, boasting a 120 H/9, 100 K/9, and a 125 Pitching Clutch. The glaring issue with Williams’ Live Series card is the very low 35 BB/9 rating, meaning he will struggle with control and maybe even walk a batter or two. But Williams’ stuff is where he shines.
The slow 83-MPH screwball is a nightmare for hitters, and Williams has a cutter and a fastball that can work off of that. Beyond his ability to shut games down late, Williams is also a worthy investment. With the Brewers, Williams was one of the most dominant closers in the game over the last half-decade. And despite a nervy Opening Day performance with the Yanks, many expect him to see repeat success going forward in the Bronx, meaning his card will likely always have a positive Inside Edge boost and may even become a Diamond after a few roster updates.
Ryan Pressley – 84-Rated New Threads
In real life, Ryan Pressly’s best days are surely behind him. The 36-year-old reliever is on a one-year deal with the Cubs at the tail-end of his career and will likely be hanging it up within the next few years. But in Diamond Dynasty, the fun is just beginning.
Like Hoby Milner, Pressly’s 84-rated Gold card is unassuming. And though he possesses a solid pitch mix and decent per-9’s, it’s likely that many players will skip right over him when browsing the Marketplace looking for relief pitching. But those players are dead wrong.
I don’t know if it’s his odd delivery or what, but Pressly has gotten a ton of whiffs ever since he entered my bullpen. I wasn’t even expecting him to be great — I was up big in a ranked match and didn’t want to waste my better arms. But Pressly has quickly become one of my favorite relievers due to his great circle change and deceptively hard slider.
Pressly will only cost you about 3500 Stubs, so he’s worth a shot. And if you don’t like him, you can simply use him as a means to complete the New Threads collection.
Clay Holmes – 84-Rated New Threads
There must be something to these New Threads cards, huh? Because next up on the list, we’ve got the 84-rated Clay Holmes. Unlike in recent iterations of the game, where Holmes has been a reliever, he is now a starter for the New York Mets. And, at least in-game, a pretty good one at that.
Again, nothing about the per-9 attributes stands out when it comes to Holmes. But his excellent pitch mix and breaks are where he succeeds. Also, his sinker routinely tops out in the mid-90s, so he does have a bit of velo to keep hitters guessing.
I’ll admit that I haven’t used him as extensively as other options on this list, but when I have used him, Clay Holmes has been a very viable and reliable pitcher, capable of both getting strikeouts and inducing soft contact for routine outs. Like Scherzer, I’d suggest using Holmes as a bottom-of-the-rotation guy to hold you over until your aces are ready to go again.
Yoshinobu Yamamato – 86-Rated Tokyo Series
Calling the Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto — one of the better starting pitchers in the Bigs last season — a “meta” pitcher might seem to be sacrilegious. But despite his IRL dominance, Yamamoto was not a go-to pitcher in MLB The Show 24. He just didn’t have the stuff in-game to miss the bats of competent players. But this year, it seems the Japanese import has a bit more bite on his pitches.
The lack of an arm-side pitch, such as the sinker, definitely isn’t ideal. But his splitter and high-90s fastball typically work quite well off each other. He’s also got a curveball that tops out in the high-70s, so his velocity differential is very good. On top of that, he’s got the cutter-slider combo for all of your tunneling needs.
Yamamoto’s staying power in your rotation might be questionable at this point. But if you’re out of options, you can do a whole lot worse.
Published: Apr 2, 2025 5:56 PM UTC