January 30th, 2024
David Adler
@_dadlerVladimir Guerrero Jr. is a home run king, Home Run Derby champion and now the new face of MLB The Show.
Vlad Jr. was revealed as the MLB The Show 24 cover athlete on Tuesday. The Blue Jays slugger joins the long line of superstars to be featured on the front of MLB's flagship video game.
Players like Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge and Bryce Harper have all been on the cover of MLB The Show in recent years. Last year's cover athlete was Jazz Chisholm Jr. of the Marlins.
MLB The Show 24, with Vlad Jr.'s cover art, will be available for PlayStation, Xbox and the Nintendo Switch.
Guerrero is only 24 years old, but he's already become one of the most fearsome sluggers in baseball. He's been an All-Star for three straight seasons, was the MLB home run co-champion in 2021 and won the Home Run Derby in 2023.
MLB The Show 24 introduced a unique feature for Vlad Jr.'s cover reveal. MLB The Show traveled to Guerrero's hometown in the Dominican Republic in December to film a special documentary in honor of him being named to the 2024 cover athlete.
"Choosing Vlad Jr. was really easy," said Ramone Russell, MLB The Show's product development, communications and brand strategist for Sony. "But we really wanted to go further. And that's why we shot the documentary for our cover announcement.
"I'm pretty sure we were the first sports video game developing studio to do this. We said, 'Hey Vlad, instead of you coming to San Diego [where the game is produced], how about we go to your hometown, and you show us some of the places that are really important to your life and how you grew up?' So our fans can connect the dots and see that through-line of everything he went through to become such a great athlete and now be on the cover of the game."
Most recent MLB The Show cover athletes
2024: Vlad Guerrero Jr. (following age-24 season)
2023: Jazz Chisholm Jr. (24)
2022: Shohei Ohtani (26)
2021: Fernando Tatis Jr. (21)
2020: Javier Báez (26)
2019: Bryce Harper (25)
2018: Aaron Judge (25)
Part of that story is Vlad Jr. following in the footsteps of his Hall of Fame father, Vladimir Guerrero. And Vlad Jr. making the cover of MLB The Show 24 is another link between the two.
Vlad Sr. was on the cover of MLB 2006 -- the predecessor to MLB The Show -- which was the final edition of the video game before it became "The Show."
"It's crazy to see that full-circle moment," Russell said. "At the same time, this is Vladdy Jr.'s story. This is Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s story. His dad is a big part of it, but we wanted to make sure we were focusing on Vlad Jr."
It's just one more family honor Vlad Jr. and Vlad Sr. share. Last year, they became the first father-son duo to become Home Run Derby champions. This year, they're the first father-son duo to become cover athletes for MLB's flagship game.
Vlad Sr. was coming off his MVP season for the Angels in 2004 when he was featured on the cover of MLB 2006, which was released before the 2005 season. The next year, the game transformed into "MLB 06: The Show," with David Ortiz on the first cover.
Vlad Sr. and Ortiz both went on to become Hall of Famers after being an MLB video game cover athlete. (Fun fact: So did 2024 Hall of Fame inductee Joe Mauer -- Mauer was on the cover of MLB The Show in both 2010 and 2011.)
It also just so happens that Big Papi was a big part of Vlad Jr.'s cover reveal on Tuesday. Ortiz, who's good friends with the Guerrero family, is the host of the MLB The Show 24 "Ride to Reveal" cover announcement stream. He was also a part of the documentary, with his connections to Vlad Jr., Vlad Sr. and baseball in the Dominican Republic.
"Vlad Jr. talked about the baseball field that not only he played on and honed his skills on, but his dad played on the same baseball field, David Ortiz played on the same baseball field," Russell said. "We were really happy, humbled and very excited to be able to peel more of the layers back. Instead of just, 'Hey, here's the cover athlete, here's a really cool cover.' We wanted to take a deeper dive and tell a more human story."
