MLB The Show 22: How to Play March to October (MtO) and Tips for Beginners

March to October (MtO) is one of the newer – if not newest – game modes in MLB The Show going back a few years. In MLB The Show 22, slight tweaks were made that make MtO a bit more exciting and added the ability to play MtO for multiple seasons rather than just one before needing to transfer that file to Franchise.

Below, you will find your complete guide on how to play March to October in The Show 22. First will be an overview of MtO. Second will be gameplay tips to help you have a successful season (or more) and offseason in The Show 22’s March to October including how to determine what team to play as, difficulty, and more.

Note: the San Francisco Giants were chosen for gameplay, hence the National League West being featured in the image to begin this piece. They are classified in The Show 22 as “Underdogs” for March to October (more below).

What is March to October in MLB The Show 22?

March to October is a revamped Franchise mode with truncated games. You will most likely play, on average, one game per series throughout the season. Each game you play will start – as pictured above – in the sixth inning or later. You’ll probably play around 50 of the shortened games through the regular season.

The main page will keep you aware of the standings, how many games you’ve played (pictured at game 41), your projected win total, and the projected amount of wins to capture the division and another to make the Wild Card. You’ll also see on the top right the conditions which you’ll be entering your next game.

As discussed further below, some of the games you’re forced to play will have special circumstances. Toward the end of the season, you will have to play games where you can clinch a playoff spot, clinch the division, clinch the league’s best record, and clinch the all-time wins record should your team be in those positions.

If or when you make the playoffs, be aware that you must play every single playoff game though again, you’ll enter in the sixth inning or later. In the playoffs, regardless of your team’s placement in the standings for the regular season and team momentum, don’t be surprised if you enter each game losing to the opponent. It seems that team momentum doesn’t matter in the playoffs in MtO and it’s about making you overcome a deficit. In fact, every playoff game played was entered with the Giants losing the game even though not a single game was lost.

What is team momentum in March to October in MLB The Show 22?

Team momentum determines how well your team plays during simulated innings and games. As each game and innings are simulated, the positive momentum depletes gradually as it’s used to win games. Negative momentum builds with each simulated loss and dissipates with each victory. Simply, if you win, momentum rises; if you lose, it drops. How you win and lose will also affect the momentum. A blowout win will add more momentum to your meter, whereas a blowout loss will subtract more momentum.

If you keep winning games, the positive momentum will maintain. However, if you lose even one game, as pictured above, you will have some negative momentum. If you’re momentum is filled with fire, then one or two snowflakes (the icon) won’t affect it too much. Still, avoid losing streaks as much as possible though this is dependent on the difficulty you choose to play.

You’ll also have around four or five “player lock” games, which are basically like Road to the Show games where you play as the selected player. For pitchers, it will always be to complete a perfect game or no-hitter; for hitters, it’s just to have a good game at the plate as defense doesn’t seem to affect the boost. For hitters, you will always have a player lock game after trading for one or calling one up from the Minor Leagues, though as will be discussed below, you don’t have to accept any trades or call up any players.

Speaking of trades and calling up players…

How do you make trades in March to October in MLB The Show 22?

In MtO, you cannot initiate trades. However, you can select “Players to Target” from the Trade Management screen. First, it’s best to look over the Positional Needs page so you can one, check the depth of each position; and two, select up to three positions to target on the right side of the screen. This will alert teams as to what positions you are seeking to acquire via trade.

You’ll also receive trade requests throughout the season until the trade deadline (July 31). You may even receive some during the opening week of the season! With that being said, be patient and wait for the offer that most intrigues you and will best help the team.

Team Needs is where you can identify just what types of players you’re seeking. You can select up to two from a range of options such as left-handed batter or pitcher, power, speed, defense, and more. Untouchables are players you select (up to four) that will not be offered in trade discussions. You most likely want to target your best players here.

Under Players to Target, you can select up to four players to try and acquire via trade. It’s unlikely, depending on the overall rating of each player, their value to their current team, and the players you can trade them, that all or any may be offered. In fact, during the one-season run of gameplay, only Jasson Dominguez of the Yankees was offered in a trade (more below).

Luckily, you’ll receive three trade offers each time the above screen appears. Make sure to go through each, check your lineups and rotation with Square or X, and decide whether to accept or decline. Note that you can only accept one trade offer presented and not two or three. You can, however, decline all at once by hitting Circle or B.

When you do accept a trade, make sure to really think about the players you’re trading away. In the above scenario, fifth starter Alex Cobb, backup catcher Curt Casali (who’s actually overtaken the starting spot from Joey Bart in real life though currently on the concussion list), and versatile Minor League catcher Brett Auerbach were traded for one player, Dominguez. After completing the trade, Tyler Rogers (for some reason) was moved to the rotation…where he actually did well even though he’s a reliever, routinely pitching into the eighth inning even though his Stamina attribute is in the 20s.

How do you call up players from the Minor Leagues in March to October in MLB The Show 22?

Like trades, you will be prompted when a Minor Leaguer is ready for promotion. Also, like trades, you don’t have to promote them. Depending on the team, it’s likely that an injured Major Leaguer will be the first ones to receive a promotion offer, though highly touted prospects may as well (such as Dominguez or the recently debuted Adley Rutschman).

If you do call up a Minor Leaguer, then you’ll have to send someone back down to the Minors. Players without options, of course, cannot be sent down – which is why in real life, Mauricio Dubón was traded to Houston by San Francisco. If you do call up a Minor Leaguer, it’s best to send down the lowest-rated player on the team as they’re most likely not seeing much playing time or contributing anyway.

With the overview complete, next you will find gameplay tips for playing March to October in The Show 22.

1. Choose the team and difficulty you think you’ll have the most success with in March to October – or your favorite team

When you begin March to October, you’ll first be asked to choose your tier and team. There are four tiers: Favorites, Contenders, Underdogs, and Longshots. It’s evenly split as there are 15 teams in the top two tiers and 15 teams in the bottom two tiers.

Here are the teams for each in order of how they’re listed:

• Favorites: Los Angeles Dodgers, Toronto Blue Jays, Houston Astros, New York Yankees, Atlanta, New York Mets, St. Louis Cardinals
• Contenders: Philadelphia Phillies, Milwaukee Brewers, San Diego Padres, Boston Red Sox, Miami Marlins, Seattle Mariners, Chicago White Sox, Los Angeles Angels
• Underdogs: Tampa Bay Rays, San Francisco Giants, Minnesota Twins, Cleveland Guardians, Colorado Rockies, Chicago Cubs, Kansas City Royals, Texas Rangers
• Longshots: Arizona Diamondbacks, Detroit Tigers, Cincinnati Reds, Washington Nationals, Baltimore Orioles, Pittsburgh Pirates, Oakland Athletics

Interestingly, during gameplay, not only was the chosen team from the Underdogs tier (Giants), but the team that was faced in the World Series was another Underdog, the Rays. In fact, three of the teams that made the playoffs during gameplay were from the Underdogs tier (including the Guardians), though no team from the bottom tier (Longshots) made the playoffs.

You’ll then choose your difficulty from Beginner all the way up to Legend. Choose whichever difficulty you wish. If you just want to win easily with little stress, choose Beginner. If you want a challenge, choose anything from All-Star higher. If you want a difficulty that fluctuates based on your gameplay, choose Dynamic. The difficulty will determine how much experience you receive toward the featured program – currently Halladay and Friends – at each seasonal overview (first half, second half, playoffs).

2. Play with your desired pitching, hitting, and fielding settings in March to October

When playing March to October, select the pitching, batting, and fielding settings that fit your playstyle. If you’re a pure analog pitcher and hitter, then make sure those are set in the settings. If you like button accuracy for fielding, make sure that’s selected as well. Basically, don’t give yourself more of a challenge than you’ll already be facing (dependent on difficulty).

For pitching, Outsider Gaming recommends using pure analog unless you’re adept at pinpoint pitching’s tracing mechanism. Pure analog tends to give you the most control of pitches and generally follows an easy pattern: if you release above the yellow line, it will go higher than expected whereas below the yellow line means it will go lower than expected.

For batting, Outsider Gaming recommends using the standard buttons (zone hitting) with the Plate Coverage Indicator (PCI) unless you’re adept at pure analog swings, whether that’s with the stride or without the stride. With the uniqueness of pitching motions and disparities in velocity among the pitchers you’ll face, hitting with pure analog may prove more difficult.

For fielding, Outsider Gaming recommends using button accuracy. This should give you the most control over your fielders’ throws and also enables the perfect throw mechanic by hitting the gold bar in the middle of the meter. With button accuracy, landing the meter in the green area should result in an accurate throw. The green area is dependent on the player’s Arm Accuracy rating; the lower, the smaller the area while the higher, the bigger the area. Button and analog don’t give you the accuracy meter, instead using your player’s Arm Accuracy rating to determine an errant or accurate throw.

March to October will start with whatever settings you have set as default. However, don’t worry, you can change the settings within MtO only from the in-mode menu (bottom right of the main MtO page).

3. Winning the World Series nets the most featured program experience in March to October – and makes the team more attractive to free agents

Your goal, of course, is to win the World Series in March to October. Even if you don’t win the division, as long as you make the playoffs – even the Wild Card game – you still have a shot to win the Fall Classic.

Winning the World Series is the biggest provider of featured program experience for March to October. While in the featured images, it’s only one thousand experience more than the first and second half rewards, the fact of the matter is the playoffs and World Series do not take as long as a half-season to obtain the experience – it’s just reaching the World Series that’s the issue.

Using the current Halladay and Friends featured program as an example, currently there is only one Conquest map with no Showdown or Collections to add program experience. You can do the Featured Program Moments, but even doing those and the Conquest map will only get you as far as unlocking All-Star Chase Utley just on the experience alone – though you may gain more depending on how well you play.

You could exchange Live Series players, but the price is steep. You could play the repeatable Conquest maps, but that can become very repetitive. You could play online through Ranked Seasons or Battle Royale, but online players in The Show tend to be among the best of the best and may be difficult for those who aren’t as skilled. You can also work on gaining the needed parallel experience for the tasks with the unlocked flashbacks and legends, but the same issues arise as discussed in this paragraph. Also, each hitter takes 350 parallel experience while each pitcher takes 500 parallel experience.

As such, March to October could be your big experience gainer for featured programs when other avenues have already been completed. Aside from the experience you gain for playing each truncated game, just using the images above, 29 thousand experience was gained for the featured program based off of the first half and second half overviews, and winning the World Series. That’s nearly enough for the first five levels of the Halladay and Friends program.

The other benefit to winning the World Series is that usually, players want to sign with successful teams. Winning the World Series will make the ensuing offseason of signing free agents a bit easier (more below).

Now that the regular and postseason have been detailed, next you will find the new offseason mode in March to October. During the offseason, you will only be signing free agents; there are no trades or anything else that occurs in the offseason, though the trade window can effectively be thought of as an extended Winter Meetings.

How the offseason functions in March to October in MLB The Show 22

When it comes to the offseason, there are a few important things to keep in mind. First, pay attention to your team budget. Of course, bigger market and more successful teams (like New York and Los Angeles teams) will have more money to work with while smaller market and less successful teams (like Pittsburgh and even MtO playoff team Cleveland) will have a smaller budget. A larger budget not only allows you to target the top free agents like Aaron Judge or Trea Turner, but also gives you more flexibility to sign other free agents should they spurn your offer (more below).

Next, you can target up to three main free agents to sign. If you select only one as your main (gold) target, then the player interest will be at least ten percent per week. However, if you add another player, it drops to around eight percent, and adding a third drops it to six percent. It’s a bit like real life: the more attention focused on a player is likely to increase their likelihood of signing with a team. Importantly, it takes 50 percent interest to even offer a contract to a player! Just because a contract is offered does not mean they’ll accept, though.

Like during the regular season, check your Team Needs and Positional Needs before placing interest in a free agent. Then again, you could just go with the “best available” strategy and go for the likes of Judge, Turner, and Clayton Kershaw regardless of team need. Nevertheless, it’s recommended that of the hitters and fielders you target, aim for those with positional versatility to maximize the potential of your lineup.

You’ll be able to update your targets at the start of each week (of 12), including any free agents from your team. With each day that passes during the week, you may see signings as “Breaking News,” though these will only be for the big names. Pictured is Judge agreeing to ten-year, 350 million dollar contract with the Rangers just a season after they signed both Marcus Semien and Corey Seager to massive long-term deals. With debates about the contract offers Judge might receive in reality this offseason and if he’ll hit 300 million dollars, The Show indicates Judge will gain at least that – though he will be 40-years-old when the contract is up with the Rangers in The Show 22!

Once you hit 50 percent interest from a player, you can then offer a contract at the beginning of the week. You’ll see what they desire both in terms of years and annual average. Pictured is closer Taylor Rogers, currently with the San Diego Padres and mirror image twin brother of Giants’ reliver-sometimes-closer Tyler Rogers. In the game, Rogers was asking for five years at just under ten million dollars a year. As shown, an extra half-million dollars was offered with the same amount of years…

…yet Rogers decided to spurn the offer and sign with Miami. It’s an indication that just because you offer more years, more money, or both that a player may still decide to sign with another team for any number of reasons. If a player signs with another team, they’ll be removed from your targeted list which you can replenish or leave as is if you want to percentage to be boosted for who’s still being targeted.

Now, there is one mechanism that will ensure you sign one free agent albeit at a higher value. You receive one “Guaranteed Accept” slot per offseason. The Guaranteed Accept shoots the player’s interest in your team to 100 percent. Using the pictured offer to Trea Turner as an example, the Guaranteed Accept added two years and a little over eight million more dollars(!) to Turner’s asking price to ensure he singed with the Giants. As it states, “You will overpay, but they are guaranteed to accept.” Having the large budget of the Giants helped considerably in making the offer as for some teams, nearly 43 million dollars would equate to more about half their payroll!

You will also, at times, receive notice from player agents that their client is interested in signing with your team even if you haven’t targeted them. These players will automatically be at or above 50 percent interest to trigger a contract offer. You can sign them with the requested offer, adjust the offer, or refuse; the choice is yours and there are no negative ramifications.

With the Giants, here were all of the free agents that were signed during the 12 weeks of the offseason thanks to such a large budget:

• Trea Turner
• Dansby Swanson
• Enrique “Kike” Hernández
• Max Muncy
• Adam Duvall
• Austin Barnes
• Aaron Nola
• Zach Eflin
• Whit Merrifield

Each position player plays at least one other position though most can shift to at least three positions; Nola and Eflin shored up the rotation. Unfortunately, the relief and closing pitching options dropped significantly after Rogers, which is why not one reliever was signed.

Depending on the budget of your team, you may only be able to sign a few free agents rather than the nine signed during gameplay, especially considering most asked for a healthy annual salary. Then again, if you sign free agents with lesser demands, you can sign just as many – though the quality of the signings may not add much to the team. Whatever the case, look to sign free agents that not only have positional versatility (for hitters), but those who can cover weaknesses on your team.

Now you have your detailed guide to playing March to October in MLB The Show 22. Remember, you can play multiple seasons of MtO in The Show 22 or play one season and import that team to Franchise (before the offseason). Which team will you take on your March to October?