Defense still wildly OP

[Cruisin]

I keep a lot of stats in my franchise save, including defensive numbers for teams. I was noticing earlier in this version (25) that it seemed like players were constantly making these defensive spectacle catches. My first season played entirely in OOTP 25 has come to a close and I can now confirm that to be the case.
My 2026 season was played entirely in OOTP 24. The following is a list of the three best and worst teams in each difficulty level of play in 2026 (OOTP 24) measured by the BIZ-X% stats:

• Routine (1-star)
  • OOTP 24: 96.3%, 96.1%, 95.8%; 94.2%, 94.1%, 93.2%
  • OOTP 25: 96.2%, 95.9%, 95.9%; 94.1%, 93.8%, 93.4%

These numbers are pretty in line with each other, but when climbing up the chart to the higher difficulty levels, a massive difference becomes obvious.

• Likely (2-star)
  • OOTP 24: 78.6%, 77.2%, 76.7%; 69.9%, 69.4%, 68.6%
  • OOTP 25: 88.7%, 88.1%, 87.6%; 83.7%, 83.7%, 82.3%
• Even (3-star)
  • OOTP 24: 59.2%, 59.1%, 59.0%; 48.8%, 47.4%, 46.2%
  • OOTP 25: 80.5%, 77.1%, 75.8%; 67.6%, 67.5%, 66.0%
• Unlikely (4-star)
  • OOTP 24: 35.3%, 34.4%, 33.7%; 25.8%, 25.7%, 25.5%
  • OOTP 25: 58.8%, 58.6%, 58.1%; 47.8%, 47.2%, 45.9%
• Remote (5-star)
  • OOTP 24: 26.1%, 23.6%, 23.3%; 16.2%, 16.0%, 16.0%
  • OOTP 25: 48.4%, 44.1%, 43.5%; 38.0%, 35.0%, 34.4%

Nearly doubling the success rate on plays that are, by the game, deemed to be the "most difficult" plays a fielder can successfully convert is baffling to me, and I've been trying to raise flags about this for months and have been ignored every time. It completely devalues the strategy of placing any focus on building a good defensive team if a corner outfielder with 35/80 range can routinely track down 5-star-difficulty line drives in the gap, or if a 40-rated shortstop shifted left is making frequent diving stops behind the second base bag and throwing on target to first.
The Zone Rating team numbers have ballooned as well:

• Best and worst three teams, zone rating, OOTP 24: 32.5, 29.1, 27.4; -21.7, -26.7, -42.3
• Best and worst three teams, zone rating, OOTP 25: 68.1, 51.0, 40.4; -25.1, -28.8, -33.6

Only six total teams had a negative Zone Rating.


This is a plea for answers. I have not changed any of my defensive modifiers from OOTP 24 to OOTP 25. Even if this is something too difficult to patch until OOTP 26 somehow, I just would like to know that the dev team is at the very least aware of it. Thanks.

[Matt Arnold]

Thanks, it does seem like OF especially are converting too many plays. We will look into it.

[Cruisin]

Thank you!!

[Sweed]

I was coming here to post about this issue and what I saw in my first completed season for fielding stats. I'm seeing very similar stat differences between v24 and v25 when I use sortable stats.

But here's the funny thing on the non-sortable team fielding page league wide stats in v25 are right in line with fielding stats from v24. I'll post screens.

Note in v24 team totals for even plays the range is 58.8% down to 40.9%.
In v25 the range is 77.5% down to 66.1%. I did the sort on even balls but this tendency holds true as you look at the other categories. In v24 remote percentages were in the teens to low 20 % range. In v25 remote percentages are in the 30 to low 40% range.

It made me wonder if the stats are being counted and saved wrong for individual teams but right in when it comes down to league wide totals?

Anyway here are the screens of my sortable and league wide stats from my last completed season in v24 and v25.