Major League Baseball, the Major League Baseball Players Association, and Sony Interactive Entertainment announced on Friday morning the creation of the first ever competitive MLB The Show league featuring only Major League players.
All 30 teams will have one representative, with Jeff McNeil playing for the Mets.
Here’s the full list of players participating including Juan Soto, Fernando Tatis Jr., Josh Hader, and Rhys Hoskins.
The MLB The Show Players League begins Friday night at 9:00 p.m. ET with Tampa Bay’s Blake Snell going up against Cincinnati’s Amir Garrett. The three-inning game can be watched on Twitch and YouTube.
ESPN is reporting that there’s also discussions about having some of the games broadcast on TV.
Competition starts with a round robin tournament, playing a total of 29 regular season games in the month of April.
At the culmination of the regular season, there will be a standard MLB playoff bracket (MLB says 8-team and MLBPA says 10-team).
MLB Network host and avid gamer Robert Flores will provide commentary, recaps, analysis and conduct player interviews throughout the course of the season, including before, during and after games, via MLB, MLB Network and PlayStation’s social media platforms.
Major League Baseball, the MLBPA and SIE will donate $5,000 on behalf of each participating player to a Boys & Girls Club affiliate in their team’s community. The stakes for the competition are enhanced with the championship player earning an additional $25,000 donation to the Boys & Girls Club in his community.
