My Weird Experiment Today
So I was messing around in MLB The Show 24 last night, right? My shortstop got hurt like, immediately in this franchise season game. Total bummer. And suddenly, this question pops into my head: can I actually change a player’s position during the game itself? Like, right in the middle of an inning?
I figured, hey, they let you do all kinds of substitutions. Why not shift a guy from one spot to another? Maybe stick my center fielder at short? Worth a shot.
Here’s what I did:
- First, I waited for a pitching change. Seemed like a natural pause point. Called time out just to be safe.
- Hit the button to bring up the “Substitutions” menu, like I always do when swapping pitchers or pinch hitters.
- Highlighted my shortstop, the dude who just went down. Instead of selecting a new player from the bench, my eyes started scanning for an option like “Change Position” or “Reposition”. Didn’t see it anywhere obvious.
- Tried pressing every button on the controller over that poor injured guy’s icon. Square? Circle? Triangle? X? Nothing happened. Just gave me the usual bench players to replace him with.
- Felt kinda dumb. Quit the substitution menu entirely.
- Got desperate. While the opposing batter was digging in, I quickly mashed the D-pad buttons, hoping some secret menu would pop up letting me drag players around the field. Nope. Just messed up my camera view.
- Then I thought about the “Defensive Positioning” option they have, y’know, where you can shift infielders left or right for pull hitters. Went into that menu next.
- Okay, I saw options like “Infield Shift” or “Outfield Shift Left”. But moving individual players? Like, putting my first baseman in left field? Couldn’t find that. It’s all pre-set team shifts or nothing.
- Finally gave up mid-inning. Decided to try doing it before the game, in the lineup management screen. That worked fine, obviously. You can put a pitcher at catcher there if you’re nuts enough. But during the game? Nah.
Honestly, it feels like they really don’t want you moving players around on the fly like some fantasy football chess piece. The tools just aren’t there in the in-game menus. If you wanna swap someone’s position, you gotta do it before the first pitch or wait until you’re making a substitution and put a different player in that spot. Kinda restrictive if your star player learns a new position mid-season, but I guess that’s the way the game wants it played. Learned that the frustrating way!
