MLB The Show 22 Franchise Mode once again provides an in-depth team strategy challenge for players, and there are hundreds of ways to play.
Our MLB The Show 22 Franchise Mode Survival Guide has the tips and tricks you need to start building a baseball dynasty.
Latest - Hitting Guide
Another year means once again players are looking for MLB The Show 22 hitting tips and tricks to dominate at the plate.
Our MLB The Show 22 Hitting Guide will help you get your settings in place, hit more home runs, and learn the necessary plate discipline to truly take your batting up a notch.
Read our MLB The Show 22 Hitting Guide: Batting Tips & Tricks to hit more Home Runs.
MLB The Show 22: Franchise Mode Survival Guide
With another year, MLB The Show 22 is back with Franchise Mode as the title's premiere team strategy mode sitting side by side with March to October.
While March to October condenses things into specific moments and removes much of the nuance by letting players focus on the gameplay, Franchise Mode instead allows you to micromanage every detail if desired.
When you first kickoff a new Franchise Mode save, the first decisions you'll need to make are which team (or teams) you want to control and which settings to go into Franchise Mode with.
Most of these are down to your own preference when it comes to control and challenge in Franchise Mode, but notably this is where you set Designated Hitter rules.
If you choose to leave it as "Auto" it'll follow the half-and-half style of recent years, "Off" removes it entirely, and "On" makes the Designated Hitter a constant like it will be in the MLB from this season forward.
Coaching Tasks, Development Tasks, and Manager Tasks are all up to your own discretion as to whether you want to handle those details yourself or let the game automatically deal with them, but in all cases you can change these control settings later.
Coaches and Training give your team an extra edge
Whether you decide to go looking through the season or wait to handle it in the offseason, changing up your coaching staff in Franchise Mode can make a major impact.
If you're handling it in the offseason a Manage Staff option will show up at the bottom of the screen, but you can also check on your coaches at any time by going to Acquisitions and Coach Contracts.
Once you're viewing the coaches, you'll notice each has specific attributes that signify their strengths or weaknesses and those impact your own team.
The biggest issue with the coaching field is that there's no easy way to sort through them, so browsing can take a lot of time, but you can find some net positive coaches to fill out your management team.
Under Manage, you'll also find the Training screen where you can set a training focus for each individual player across your club.
From here, you can decide which areas you want your players to focus on, and look closely to spot the highlighted attributes with green lettering.
This will show you which stats are being influenced by a specific training option, allowing you to continue improve your existing team over time.
Sponsorships can bolster your budget
Whether you started with a struggling club in need of rebuilding or a strong powerhouse out the gate, budget will eventually become something you need more from.
You'll be able to consider and work around contracts to ensure the best use of your existing budget, but the only way to increase the money your team has to work with is by pairing sponsorships with success.
You'll find the Review Sponsorships option on the main Franchise menu during the season, and from there you can choose to put different ones in place.
Sponsorships are one of the many unlockables in MLB The Show 22, and you can earn more by either opening packs from Diamond Dynasty or purchasing them on the market in Diamond Dynasty.
Prices vary, but even most of the more expensive sponsorships at Diamond level are less than 10,000 Stubs.
While not a tiny cost, with only three sponsorships allowed in Franchise Mode, players should be able to snag the few they want without too much trouble.
If you want to try and build up money while rebuilding a struggling team, going with the reliable Per Game sponsorships may be a better path than ones which only give you money for wins or specific in-game performance.
Scouting and the Draft
While it is often workable and extremely tempting to build your team primarily through paths like Free Agency or the Trade Block, the value of Scouting can't be overstated.
Scouting is one of the many systems in MLB The Show 22 Franchise Mode where the amount it helps you directly correlates to how much time you put into it.
If you're willing to take your full Franchise day by day, you can ensure that every time a player has been fully scouted you can pop back in to assign that scout to someone new.
All this will eventually culminate when the draft arrives, and having a lot of players clearly scouted gives you plenty of information to make those draft picks.
While not a necessary piece of the puzzle in building your team, many players find significant value by taking part in the Rule 5 Draft during December in the offseason.
It may seem like you've done something wrong by having less than a full 40-man roster when the Rule 5 Draft arrives, but it's actually a fantastic way to snag prospects from other teams.
Especially if you're looking to do a multi-year long-term Franchise Mode save, you'll want to make the most out of the standard MLB Draft and Rule 5 Draft to improve your depth chart.