Deep Immersion 2026 Draft Class

[TrapperJohn]

Thanks to recent changes the dev team made (allowing for school info to be exported and imported from save to save), it's now possible for us to create and share draft classes. As an MLB draft enthusiast myself, I wanted to share this little labor of love: a deeply-researched take on the '26 class as it stands today, complete with accurate facegens.

I used resources like Baseball America, etc., to put this together, and it was... time-consuming. Probably not a project I can replicate for future years. I tried everything I could to ensure accuracy (even guys who aren't likely to be drafted who are, say, incredibly fast, or have a great catcher arm, should have that reflected in here). The hardest part was getting pitcher arsenals correct (some of that info is simply unavailable, so accuracy is less guaranteed the further you drop down the rankings into the more obscure guys). And of course, draft classes shift over time — prep prospects will emerge out of nowhere; college guys will rise up or crash out next season. For now, though, I believe this is the closest thing to a deeply accurate class that has been produced. It's 2,600 prospects strong, and I'll likely add to it or otherwise modify it over time.

It takes a few steps to upload this into your save, so let me walk you through it. First, though, the files:

CSV file
Facegens

This is going to sound convoluted, but getting it loaded into your save is pretty easy. It really only takes a couple of minutes.

First — unzip the facegens and drop them in your facegen folder.

Next — go to your OOTP save, and navigate to the draft pool. The one variable is whether or not your save has advanced to the point where the default screen is the 2026 class, or still 2025 — I haven't tested uploading this in the latter case, but I think it should still work the same way? In any event, if you don't see any players on screen, click on 'Future Pool' on the right side of the screen and move over to 2026. Now, click the bubble on the left to select all players, and (don't be scared) delete them.

We now need to create 2,600 placeholder amateurs. Click the 'MLB' button at the top of the screen, select 'Reports & Info,' and then select 'List All MLB Players.' This will take you to a screen that allows you to mass-create players, which you do by clicking 'ACTIONS..." in the top right, and then 'Create Fictional Players.'

This part, you have to get right. Change 'Player Type' to 'Amateur.' Change 'Player Age' to 'Young (22-25)' (THAT'S THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP!). Change 'Draft Eligibility' to 'Eligible for next Draft.' And change 'Number of Players' to 2600. Everything else you can leave as is.

Once you hit 'Create Player(s),' navigate back to your draft pool (it's under 'MLB' then 'Rookie Draft'). You should have 2,600 randos populating the '26 pool (sidebar: if you haven't advanced to 2026 yet in your game, and they show up in the '25 pool instead, *I think* this should still work... but let me know if it doesn't, and it should be a fairly simple fix).

Click the "Actions..." button on this screen, and select 'Export draft pool.' Name it whatever you want, and pay attention to the file path so you can open it up in Excel. From there... open it up in Excel.

This may just be a Mac thing, but when I open an OOTP file in Excel, I get a little Text Import Wizard pop-up. If you do too, then choose 'Delimited,' and change 'File origin' from Macintosh to Unicode (UTF-8) (I've found that diacritical marks and other things can get a little wonky otherwise). Hit 'next,' and then make sure 'Comma' is selected as your delimiter so that the file looks legible when you open it. Open it.

Now! Open the other file you got from this post, which is a spreadsheet. Ignoring the top row, select everything else, from the surname "Aaron" in cell A2 all the way to the "eol" in cell FB2601. Copy it. Switch over to the exported draft pool spreadsheet from your save, put your cursor on the last name of the first player listed, and hit paste. Those 2,600 randos have now been replaced by 2,600 real prospects. DO NOT mess with the first five columns, which include player IDs.

Save the file you just pasted into (again, maybe a Mac thing, but I do 'Save As' and then have to change 'File Format' from 'Tab Delimited Text' to 'CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited),' otherwise I run into glitches). Name it whatever you want. Now go back to OOTP, click 'Import draft class' on the draft pool screen, and choose the file you just modified. If you followed these steps, my draft class should be there (note: sometimes you have to click away after importing to another screen, and then click back).

Let me know if you try it and it doesn't work for you — every player should have an accurate Facegen and realistic rankings (the latter being subjective, to a point). I meant for the ratings to work with CBLCardinals' rosters, but they should be fine for the base game as well. If you see anything amiss, technically or subjectively, or notice any players missing, etc., all feedback is welcome. Hope this serves you well, and is the first of many for this community! Thanks again to the devs for making this possible at last.

[BestbatBoy]

You and CBL should release a joint roster set with this pre installed

[highandoutside]

Wow, thanks so much for the work you put into this, TrapperJohn!

[TrapperJohn]

Originally Posted by BestbatBoy

You and CBL should release a joint roster set with this pre installed

CBL is welcome to incorporate this if he sees fit! It’s for anyone to do with as they please.

[kidd_05_u2]

Very cool project. Thanks for sharing.

[BestbatBoy]

Haven't been able to successfully merge this with the default 2025 opening day roster set, but... still thank you so very much for this. the research that has gone in, allows me to old school this and get ratings for many many missing college players for my WIP project of creating an accurate 2025 NCAA Div 1 roster set

[ChaseReed]

Getting into complex simulations takes both strategy and practice. Sometimes the first attempts feel overwhelming, but sticking with it pays off. It’s similar to preparing through an avop practice test, familiarity builds skill over time. The more scenarios you run, the easier it becomes to anticipate outcomes and make smarter decisions in future games.