MLB The Show 23 Beginner's Guide to Franchise Mode

While some teams are content with being competitive and potentially making it to the playoffs, winning the World Series is the ultimate goal. The endeavor of building a championship-level team can be stressful, but in MLB The Show 23, the franchise mode offers the opportunity to operate a major league team and fulfill your desire.

Baseball fans love to showcase their knowledge and fantasize about how they would build a team better than the current general managers. Well, the franchise mode provides you with multiple opportunities to successfully manage a team. Here are some key tips and tricks you should know before starting a new MLB franchise.

Updated on September 6, 2023 by Sean Murray: If you want to lead your team to the playoffs, we have the tips for playing the franchise mode in full swing. We have also updated this guide with a revised format to make reading easier and with additional relevant links to other topics in MLB The Show 23.

Choose Your Team For Franchise

The first crucial decision in the franchise mode is to select a team. By default, general managers have contracts that last for three years, and whether you will be rehired depends on the performance of your team.

MLB The Show 23 allows you to disable the GM contracts and permanently control a team.

If you are new to the franchise mode or to MLB The Show, we recommend selecting a team with low expectations or disabling the GM contracts.

You can view a detailed overview of team expectations in the GM Goals menu.

Each team has different season and contract goals. For example, some teams have the goal of winning the World Series, like the Los Angeles Dodgers, while other teams aim to simply finish above a .500 ratio, like the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Choose The Best Settings For Franchise Mode

After selecting the team, you will need to choose the appropriate settings for your franchise experience.

Franchise Mode Settings
Fantasy Draft:	When turned on, you will enter a fantasy draft where you’ll select a new roster from a pool of current players.
Allow Non-Active Free Agents:	When turned on, non-active players from other leagues will be available to sign from the free-agent pool. If this setting is turned off, only players that have been previously assigned to a team roster will be available.
CPU Roster Control:	This setting should remain off unless you want to control the entire league. Turning this setting on will also disable trades, budgets, and injuries.
CPU Trading:	To maintain realism, this setting should remain on to enable CPU-controlled teams to make trades.
Ignore Budgets:	This is an important setting that can make or break your franchise. When this is turned on, the budgets will be ignored, and you’ll be able to spend as much money as possible. If you’re looking for the most realistic experience controlling a franchise, you can leave the budgets off and calculate your team’s finances for all transactions.
Force Trades:	Unless you want to control the entire league, you should leave this setting off and allow CPU-controlled teams to have the option to accept or decline a trade offer.
Designated Hitter:	The National League finally adopted the Designated Hitter in 2022, making the position universal across the league. If you want to experience the days of old, you can switch this setting to off and force pitchers to hit.
Extra Inning Runner:	Major League Baseball passed a new rule for the 2023 season that features a runner on second base to begin the tenth inning. Turning this setting off will remove the base runner.

Once you have completed the general settings for your franchise, you can choose which tasks you want to be responsible for.

Tasks In Franchise Mode

There are three main areas of responsibility to be successful in the franchise mode: coaching tasks, development tasks, and managerial tasks.

Each area has its own level of complexity, but you can adjust these tasks later if you feel overwhelmed.

Coaching, Development, And Manager Tasks
Coaching Tasks:	Set lineups and rotations Injury management
Development Tasks:	Scouting
Manager Tasks:	Hire and Fire Staff 40-Man Roster Roster Moves Free Agency Trades Waiver Transactions Contracts

While you can give the computer the ability to handle all of these tasks, it is recommended that you manually complete at least the coaching and development tasks.

These are the main areas that impact the current and future roster.

Players will have phases during the season where they may struggle, have a good streak, or get injured. Having full control over the batting order and pitching rotation system will help avoid disasters in such situations.

It is not only important to consider the future of your franchise, but scouting for talent will also increase their interest in joining your team.

This task could make the difference between having a young, dynamic player on your team or potentially seeing them join a rival team.

Scouting In Franchise Mode

Scouting can be somewhat challenging, but MLB The Show 23 strives to make it as accessible as possible. Each team has three scouts, which means you can scout up to three talents.

There are a total of 14 weeks to scout players before the Amateur Draft.

The scouts can analyze players based on specific skills or positions or discover new talents.

You can use the player search feature to quickly look for a specific player type that you can either acquire through a trade or simply scout. This is a helpful tool to improve specific positions in your team.

Each scout has four attributes that determine their scouting abilities and allow you to prioritize scouts for specific positions.

To determine which positions you should prioritize, you can access the Position Needs menu, which shows how each position on your team compares to the rest of the league.

Budgeting In Franchise Mode

Managerial tasks may seem overwhelming at first glance, but they offer even more control over the team.

Depending on whether you have budgets enabled or disabled, it will determine how complex these tasks will be. Hiring coaches, signing players in free agency, or acquiring players through trades will all consider financial aspects.

If you plan to enable budgets, you should consider this when selecting a team. Teams with more money available will have an easier time acquiring better talents.

Play Ball

Finally, it's time to play ball. After completing the settings and tasks of your team, you can choose whether to start the franchise in Spring Training or the regular season.

The main advantage of starting in Spring Training is to perfect the game mechanics such as hitting, fielding, and pitching while also analyzing the depth of the team.

If the budget is enabled, you can enter into sponsorship contracts and equip to increase revenues.

These sponsorship contracts will help increase the amount of money you can use to sign better players and improve your team.

Once Spring Training is over, the regular season begins, and the games truly count.

There are five different methods to play a franchise game. Give your best with the following methods to lead your team on the path to championship glory.

How To Play Franchise Games
Play Full Game:	The traditional way of playing MLB The Show 23.
Player Lock:	Just as the name suggests, Player Lock will lock you into one player, and you’ll only play their plate appearances, fielding opportunities, or pitching. This method is similar to Road to the Show.
Quick Manage:	This method simulates the game action based on decisions you make for the hitter or pitcher. When batting, you’ll select Swing, and the game will determine if you reached base or recorded an out. On the mound, you’ll choose regular Pitch, Pitch Around, Pitch To Contact, or Walk Batter. You will also be able to enter the game and play like normal.
Manage Full Game:	Unlike Quick Manage, you’ll be locked into the managerial side of the game. This mode forces you to watch the game action while selecting actions for your players.
Retro Mode:	This is a simplified game mode where you only need to press one button to execute actions in the game. At the plate, you can use the joysticks to move around in the batter’s box to get a better swinging angle. On the mound, you can use the joysticks to shift on the rubber and manipulate the trajectory of the pitch.

During the season, you can assign different training sessions to improve players. If a pitcher is struggling with control on the field, assign him a training session with the pitching coach.

Or if a batter is consistently struggling to hit home runs, it might be a sign that he needs to hit the gym.