The Gold Master version of Out of the Park Baseball 18 has been sent out to those who pre-ordered, but you can still buy it now for $34.99, a 10% discount, and receive it right away, ahead of the March 24 worldwide launch.

Meanwhile, the Road to Release series continues with a look at the newly updated rosters in OOTP 18.

It’s that exciting time of year again, baseball fans. Spring training is in full swing as MLB teams see if the time spent this winter trying to craft what they hope will be this year’s Chicago Cubs comes to fruition or not. And a new a spring tradition continues with the upcoming release of Out of the Park Baseball 18. As always, with it comes important updates to the always impressive MLB roster set.

Every year, the OOTP roster team works hard to ensure that when you create a new MLB game, you have the latest and greatest team rosters available at your fingertips. Imagine booting up a game only to see Edwin Encarnacion still on the Blue jays or Alex Rodriguez still on the Yankees roster. Not with OOTP, folks! The roster team performs constant updates based on any and all of the real life MLB transactions, all the way up to and after the game’s release.

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These updates are not limited to just the major leagues, either. The roster team works diligently to make sure that each level of the MiLB minors is complete and up to date with all the top MLB prospects. Also included in this effort is updating all player ratings using the vaunted ZiPS player projection system.

2017 off-season review

So what were some of the biggest moves that the roster team had to make this year? There were some surprising and not so surprising moves that occurred this winter.

First some of the surprising moves:

• The Toronto Blue Jays surprisingly lost Edwin Encarnacion to the AL Champion Cleveland Indians. If Terry Francona and company were hoping for a repeat, their chances took a measurable swing upward with his signing. Toronto may have kept OF Jose Bautista but they’ll be much harder pressed to return to the postseason again this year.
• The Boston Red Sox acquired Chris Sale in a trade with the Chicago White Sox. Chicago also traded for a pair of pitchers with the Washington Nationals sending OF Adam Eaton.

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• 43-year-old pitching stalwart Bartolo Colon signed a $12.5MM contract with Atlanta amidst their rebuilding efforts. He joins fellow grey-beard pitcher R.A. Dickey and the Cardinals’ Jaime Garcia in a minor effort to improve this year.
• The Yankees cleaned house of some big and cumbersome contracts with the retirements of Mark Texeria and Alex Rodriguez. They added some veteran pop with the addition of Matt Holiday.
• The Houston Astros signed veteran OF Carlos Beltran and C Brian McCann in what they surely hope will be a run back to the top of the AL West.

In the not-so-surprising category:

• The San Francisco Giants cleaned house in their well-regarded but shockingly ineffective bullpen of last year, sending Jose Casillia, Sergio Romo and Javy Lopez to free agency and signing new closer Mark Melancon from Washington.
• Aroldis Chapman returned from his stint in Chicago to the New York Yankees as a free agent.
• Yoenis Cespedes re-signed with the New York Mets.
• Fernando Rodney signed a one-year deal to shore up yet another weak bullpen in Arizona.
• The San Diego Padres failed to make any significant signings and instead continued with their newly revised rebuilding effort.

OOTP 18’s newest team feature

A new feature this year to OOTP is the team chemistry screen. This screen offers a look into how your manager either gets along or doesn’t with members of the team. It also highlights which players are the captain, clubhouse leaders, pranksters, complainers and potential morale killers (AKA the clubhouse cancers). 

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The team chemistry screen can heavily influence decisions made during both the off-season and before the trading deadline. For instance, if a player is really running his mouth and team morale is dropping, you may elect to initiate a trade involving said player. Will his departure start to improve morale? You’ll have to try it and find out.

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The roster team’s take

I’d love to continue to expound the great work done by the roster team and the new OOTP features, but why just take my word? The roster team has been down in the weeds in the rosters and work for this year, so we asked them to weigh in on the MLB off-season moves for this year.

(Forum handle: frangipard)

Best /Worst Overall Move

Best: The White Sox trading Chris Sale.  

2nd Best: The Red Sox acquiring Chris Sale.

Worst: The Rockies signing Ian Desmond to play 1B.

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Most Surprising/Disappointing Move

Surprising:  The Mariners making wholesale changes to an 86-win team.  

Disappointing:  I have no idea what the Orioles are doing.  No single move is especially good or bad, but it just seems like organizationally there's no plan here.

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Most/Least Improved Team

So hard to say, given that teams have different goals.  Just in terms of one-season W-L, I like the Twins and Astros to bounce back.    

Between the Royals, Tigers and Giants, I expect at least one to completely fall apart from injuries and age this year.

Player(s) to watch based on OOTP ratings

I am fascinated to see how Manny Ramirez -- age 44, out of the game for three years, and now on an unlimited-free-sushi diet -- will do in the Shikoku Island League. OOTP is the only game on the market where you can manage the Kochi Fighting Dogs.

Possible 2017 breakout star(s)

Trea Turner

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Team to Watch

The White Sox. Not because they're going to win, but because they have the game's top prospect (who can play several positions) as well as a newly-restocked farm system, and are fully committed to a rebuild, with several interesting players still to flip. I think they might be the most interesting team to play OOTP with this year, especially given the improved trading AI.   

Give us your impression of OOTP’s take on the upcoming season based on the most updated ratings.

It's going to be a blast. The game is better every year, and this is no exception.  

Robin Hawkins (ms2002)

Best /Worst Overall Move

Best: Dodgers re-signing Justin Turner for a bargain deal.

Worst: Blue Jays signing Kendry Morales to a three-year deal.​

Most Surprising/Disappointing Move

​Both Surprising & Disappointing: Ian Desmond signing to be a first-baseman. I was convinced that the Rockies were planning to trade an outfielder for pitching and that this would all make sense in the end, but it never happened.​

Most/least Improved Team

​Most: Angels - I like the solid, if unspectacular, foundation they constructed around Trout.​ Least: Rangers - they over-achieved in 2016 and did little to improve their team in 2017.​  ​

Player(s) to watch based on OOTP ratings

​In my early test sims, OOTP seems to expect big development from Tommy Joseph and A.J. Reed.​

Possible 2017 breakout star(s)

Mitch Haniger and James Paxton on the Mariners could be poised to surprise a lot of people. In terms of prospects, I'm fascinated by Greg Allen in the Indians system and think he could be a break-out surprise. Scouts seem to underrate him, but he's displayed elite OBP, speed and center field defense in the minors.​

Team to Watch

​The Mariners re-tooled in a very interesting way and should have one of the more elite outfield defenses in recent history. I think this will be the year that it all comes together for the Nationals as well.​

Give us your impression of OOTP’s take on the upcoming season based on the most updated ratings.

​The most recent 2017 sim I ran had the Mets defeating the Mariners in the World Series. Yoan Moncada, Josh Bell, James Paxton, Jose Peraza and Aaron Judge all broke out in big ways. ​​​

Whether it’s free agent signings, promotions or demotions, trades or even handling the sad and unfortunate losses of stars like Jose Fernandez and Yordano Ventura, the roster team keeps updating the roster set not only up to the release of OOTP, but throughout the year as well. So whenever you want to start a new season, the latest rosters are always available at your fingertips. So be sure to get your copy of OOTP 18, take control of your favorite MLB team and begin your march to glory!