The long-awaited cover reveals of baseball’s biggest video game had a happy ending for Miami Marlins fans last month.
Indeed, the face of MLB The Show 23 is Marlins star Jazz Chisholm Jr., just another promising sign of what could be a turnaround season at loanDepot Park.
During a live stream promoting the game’s release, Sony Interactive Entertainment elaborated on the choice of Chisholm, saying his “electric personality, play and love for all things baseball made him a great choice to be on the cover. … He never thought a kid like him from the Bahamas would make it to the show, let alone end up on the cover of MLB The Show!”
In 2022, more than 1.2 billion games were purchased, and for the Marlins, that means so many more fans will have a visual representation of the new-look club that will shoot for a return to the postseason this year.
Since Chisholm’s debut in 2020, he has become one of baseball’s most fun and electric players. Not only is he a threat on the field with his power and speed, but he was also the first Bahamian MLB All-Star in 2022 with a 14-home run and 12-stolen base first half.
In the 60 games Chisholm played last season with the Marlins, he totaled an on-base plus slugging percentage of .860. Injuries cut his season short, but with new teammates all around him this season, the stage is set for bigger and better things.
In the interim, Chisholm is excited to join a “pretty exclusive list” of former MLB The Show cover athletes, like Bryce Harper, Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge.
“It’s just one of these things that you can check off your bucket list and be like, ‘I’m with some great people right here’,” he said. “Most of these guys are going to be Hall of Famers at the end of their career.”
The game’s Sony representatives concur. In a statement released during the live stream, the company added, “We could not be more excited for Jazz to join the roster of cover athletes.”
The game launches on March 28, just before Opening Day. MLB The Show 23 will be available on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
The Marlins open the season with a four-game series at home against the New York Mets from March 30 through April 2. Joining Chisholm at loanDepot Park will be new teammates Matt Barnes, Luis Arraez, Johnny Cueto, Jean Segura, and rookie manager Skip Schumaker, who has taken the reins after the club stumbled to a 69-93 finish last season.
“Your path in MLB The Show starts now,” Chisholm said. Perhaps the Marlins’ road back to the postseason will, as well.
