Every year, Com2Us-published franchise Out of the Park Baseball has released a dedicated management simulation game that reflects what it’s like to be in control of a Major League team. Out of the Park (OOTP) Baseball 26 is the latest installement, released earlier this year, While OOTP 26 has its flaws, the franchise still finds way to innovate in areas it needed to.
Walkthrough
For those new to Out of the Park Baseball, this game isn’t anything compared to MLB The Show or games of its ilk. Instead, it’s a pure management simulation with one singular goal: build a World Series-winning team.
This is essentially franchise mode on steroids, filled with myriad options not seen in traditional made-for-console baseball games.
Just from the onset, one can see exactly how different this game is compared to MLB The Show. Individuals can start up a new save by either starting a standard game at the beginning of the season, a “Live Start” feature to start on a specific day (with the previous games filled with real stats), or even begin at the end of the 2024 season.
Additionally, users can play in Historical mode, going back in time and starting a save from past seasons across the decades-long history of Major League Baseball.
The depth of OOTP only starts there. Players can choose to have MLB Partner Leagues (i.e., independent leagues) and the MLB Draft League active, and even KBO teams in the universe, meaning players from those leagues are in the game. Although there are some variances. For example, “Joe McMahon” is the fictitious name for Jake Cave, who now plays in Korea.
Individuals can set strategies, including infield/outfield shift usage, quick hooks, and even development focuses for players, amongst other options. And of course, one could always sim at-bat by at-bat via the in-game manager.
For those who’ve played an Out of the Park Baseball game in the past, it’s what would be expected. But for those who haven’t, just know that so much detail — including real MLB Draft prospects from 2025-27 — has been placed into the rosters, management system, etc.
Moving into a new era of research
One of the most notable additions in this year’s game was the expansion of the Development Lab.
Back in OOTP 25, the development team added this feature, giving users the ability to have prospects and MLB players work on some component of their game. This can include adding velocity, adding bat speed, to even working at a new position.
For Out of the Park Baseball 26, this feature was expanded. Now, there’s a mid-offseason progress report that indicates whether a player is doing well or poorly. This goes off at the halfway marker of the training session. If a player is doing badly, the manager can pull the player but it will come at a cost.
Pulling a poorly-performing player early will come with a penalty, as the player’s potential attributes will fall slightly. However, it could save a further penalty if that player sticks for the duration of the session.
It’s a good barometer check. Especially, when taking into account that this feature allows to shuffle around the players in the lab.
Now, I still have major gripes with the lab. Namely, the change position — which is NOT foolproof, as it can fail — option doesn’t give managers any say on where a player gets work. Sometimes, for organization depth chart purposes, it would be nice to choose whether an infielder works in a specific outfield position (i.e., a speedy infielder works in center field).
Unfortunately, that’s not possible in its current setup.
Nonetheless, the expanded spots and mid-offseason progress reports do add immersion and benefit the manager in the long term.
New functionality for ’26
Innovation didn’t stop with the lab. There are several things — small, yet important things — found in the sim that, frankly, I was incredibly pleased with.
One, OOTP developments somewhat fixed a glaring issue with developments for players who entered at age 18 or younger (16, for international players). In past games, these players generally entered the pool at 20 overall (.5 stars, for those who use that metric), the lowest end of the 20-80 scouting scale.
And, these players generally took years to develop. It wouldn’t be until 22-23 years of age that real development took place.
Thus, the strategic move always seemed to be to leave those players at the lowest level of competition until growth was achieved. The problem, however, was that it’s not emblematic of how teams handle prospects.
For OOTP 26, the top echelon of players of this ilk tend to rank anywhere from 22-30 current value. Which matters significantly, as that means quicker development. Given how fast high schoolers like Jackson Holliday, Jackson Merrill, and Roman Anthony moved in recent years, there needed to be more variability with the overalls.
Additionally, the MLB Draft Combine is also in the game. Here, players can assign their scouting director to evaluate talent just before the draft in July. It can heavily raise the scouting accuracy, making it a nice addition for what is a monotonous process.
Where the sim needs tuning
Yes, despite this being an immersive simulation, there’s still a lot missing in Out of the Park Baseball.
For one, the MLB Draft still does not include Competitive Balance Round A or B, meaning small-market team franchises are still at a significant disadvantage. No extra picks to use or trade, nor does the draft feature a hard cap on how much money can be spent. Meaning, if your team has a lot of cash available, it means a throwback to the old days of the MLB Draft.
Second, terms baseball fans have likely heard a lot in recent years are “signing bonuses” and “posted players.” Now, I don’t think the former will be added, as this is a relatively niche concept to put in. However, posted players are far and few in this game.
Currently, only KBO players get posted. Out of the Park Baseball only has rights to KBO teams and not NPB teams. The game will randomly generate Japanese players, as well as other foreign pros from Cuba. However, this comes with downsides. It ignores the posting process and additionally, makes these players subject to arbitration (usually, these individuals are not).
I suppose a workaround to this would be to add fictitious Japanese teams and then add the real players in. But not having those players in does affect what’s supposed to be an immersive sim.
After all, just in the last few years, Roki Sasaki, Seiya Suzuki, and Shota Imanaga have all made it over from Japan to the U.S. and thrived. It would be cool to see other Japanese players come overseas in the fictional world.
Three, the AI still makes odd moves. For example, one of my test sims saw this scenario play out: Andrew McCutchen, hitting well for a Pirates team that needs offense and has value, was released by Pittsburgh and signed by a bad White Sox team in the first year.
Why? Wouldn’t the more prudent strategy be to get value for McCutchen? After all, he was productive.
This is just not tied to trades but also the draft, as far too many first-rounders in my anecdotal testing don’t sign. Inconsistent valuation by teams for MLB roster players & prospects could use tuning.
However, it’s worth noting that games, for years, have never nailed this strategy down to a tee.
Another nitpick: ideally, add a highlight to players not eligible for a Minor League level due to age. It would save the hassle of bulk releasing players — while needing to remember and/or write down the names — right before the start of a season.
Lastly, while the UI is fine, keep in mind it doesn’t work well with the Steam Deck in handheld. The management options are too difficult to navigate, making it much more preferable to play with a desktop or laptop.
Out of the Park Baseball is not Steam Deck-verified, so it’s not a shock this is the case. Nonetheless, be forewarned.
Stay away from Perfect Team
Much like other sports games, Out of the Park Baseball has its CCG-oriented game mode: Perfect Team.
Here, players can purchase packs and buy players off the marketplace to add to their team. And as one progresses up the ladder, your team should continue to get better and better.
However, understand a few things about it.
One, it’s a heavy-microtransaction game mode. Granted, it’s manageable if you micromanage daily. Still, it doesn’t change that fact.
Two, it — as is the nature of OOTP — is sim-based. It can be very random, something to note should one choose to get involved.
Yes, the player pool of available players is exceptional, blowing away what MLB The Show has in its game. Nonetheless, there are downsides that I don’t like.
Rating
If you haven’t played a management game before, or are just not interested in MLB The Show’s franchise mode, it’s hard to do better than Out of the Park Baseball. Even with its flaws, it still remains one of the pinnacles when it comes to management games, alongside Football Manager.
The pluses of this game are as follows: it possesses an incredibly deep player pool, a usable UI, and improved functionality across the board.
However, its flaws are hard to ignore, especially when said flaws have been in game after game.
- Rating: 7/10
Check out more of our gaming coverage, including our Backyard Baseball ’97 review for the PC.