MLB The Show 26 early access will begin on March 13. And with just one week before the launch of the game, the development team at Sony announced several major gameplay-related changes during the Diamond Dynasty feature premiere. One was regarding the PCI shrinkage, and the other was on stretch-only online pitching.

Removal of PCI shrinkage & stretch-only pitching

In a brief update on Sony San Diego‘s feature premiere deep dive on March 5, MLB The Show director of gameplay Chris Gill confirmed that PCI shrinkage will be removed on down-and-away pitchers for all difficulties in online competitive gameplay.

The Director of Gameplay heard you loud and clear, and made some changes we think you'll like. Pitching from the stretch and removing shrinkage from down and away pitches for online play have been updated before the launch of MLB The Show 26. pic.twitter.com/47AJeLMnop

— MLB The Show (@MLBTheShow) March 5, 2026

For those unaware, Sony deliberately “shrunk” the PCI on breaking balls thrown by a pitcher to same-sided hitters (i.e., RHP to RHH, LHP to LHH). This would, in effect, mirror how same-sided hitters struggle against sliders and sweepers.

But from a gameplay perspective, it also meant instances where it became almost too impossible to hit a breaking ball on the greatest difficulties, particularly in online Diamond Dynasty.

During the gameplay deep dive, Gill panned that shrinkage was necessary to combat excessive foul balls in MLB The Show. Instead, he pointed to Ambush Hitting and to “make an adjustment” on those pitches.

Now, Gill stated regarding the change, “We’re going to try it out for a while and just see how it works.”

Second, the development team announced that it would not go through with the plan to remove the windup from online play.

In that same deep dive from early February, Sony announced that it would give players the option to pitch exclusively out of the windup or stretch, or use both. However, this only applied to single-player. For online play, the default would be out of the stretch.

Both changes were made due to feedback received by the MLB The Show community.

One last note: add Troy Tulowitzki to the list of new legends to MLB The Show 26. The former Rockie and Blue Jays shortstop was announced as a new entrant into the legends roster for this year’s game.

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