The League
MLB25 plays a 30-team season for 2025. The league is organized into 6 divisions: AL West, NL West, NL East, AL East, AL Central, NL Central. Games are scheduled in an MLB-style unbalanced format, with more games against division rivals. The season runs on a fixed calendar, with auto-sim (when enabled) advancing games day by day. The regular season is 162 games long.
On the Field
Games are played under Statis Pro (canon) rules, faithful to the original booklet weights and flavor. The designated hitter bats for the pitcher. Ballpark effects are in play, so a team's home field shapes its results. Platoon splits are flattened to a generic handedness effect rather than each player's actual card split. Extra innings open with a runner placed on second base. A relief pitcher who enters mid-inning must face at least three batters (or finish the half-inning) before leaving. Each team is allowed 5 mound visits per nine innings. Positional usage follows the advisory guideline. A player may make a limited number of out-of-position starts before an error and throwing penalty apply. In-game injuries are turned on, so a tough play can put a player on the shelf.
Pitching
Starting pitchers tire as the game wears on, and a batter who sees the same pitcher a third or fourth time through the order gets the better of it. Both are built into the engine and apply to every game in this league; there is no setting to turn them off.
Rosters
Each team carries an active roster of 26 players and a farm squad of up to 15. Usage caps are enforced: a player may not be used beyond 100% of his real-season workload. Add/drop moves are handled with the commissioner approving each move individually.
Trades
Every trade waits for the commissioner's explicit approval or denial, with no time limit. Once approved, a trade takes effect at the next midnight in the league's time zone (UTC), so every roster move lands on a clean calendar day. While a trade is awaiting its effective date, the players involved are frozen on their current roster and cannot be started or activated until the deal actually takes effect.
The Draft
The draft runs snake-style, with the pick order reversing each round. It is drafted live, in real time. The commissioner sets the draft order.
The Postseason
The postseason field is 6 teams. The top 2 seeds earn byes through the first round. The wild-card round is best of 3, the next round best of 5, the championship round best of 7, and the title series best of 7. The higher seed hosts every game of every series. Standings ties (after winning percentage) are broken in this order: head-to-head record, then record within the division, then record against the rest of the league, then run differential.