2026 Topps Series 1 Early Rookie Card Predictions

[JAM061200]

Super early I know but this can be a rolling list of prospects with some pedigree that get called up after the May 30th (2025 Topps Update) cutoff date. Looking promising so far. I believe the arbitrary cutoff date to be in Series 1 is August 31st. After that, RC's will be in Series 2. Thoughts?

Series 1 (Notable)

Cole Young
Jac Caglianone
Kyle Teel
Roman Anthony
Jacob Melton
Jacob Misiorowski (Pitcher)
Otto Kemp
Ryan Ritter
Ian Seymour (Pitcher)
Grant Taylor (Pitcher)
Christian Moore
Brady House
Didier Fuentes (Pitcher)
Chase Burns (Pitcher)
Jack Perkins (Pitcher)
Colby Thomas
Yanquiel Fernandez
Colson Montgomery
Cam Schlittler (Pitcher)
Brice Matthews
Cody Freeman
Warming Bernabel
Carson Whisenhunt (Pitcher)
Kenedy Corona
Troy Melton (Pitcher)
Alex Freeland
Jakob Marsee
CJ Kayfus
Jerimiah Jackson
Drew Gilbert
Nolan McLean (Pitcher)
Karros
Owen Caissie
Bob Seymour
Dylan Beavers
Samuel Basallo
Bubba Chandler (Pitcher)
Carson Williams
Jhostynxson Garcia "The Password"
Jonah Tong (Pitcher)
Peyton Tolle (Pitcher)
Jimmy Crooks


Series 2 (Notable)

Sal Stewart
Carter Jensen
Harry Ford
Brandon Sproat (Pitcher)
Connelly Early (Pitcher)
Trey Yesavage (Pitcher)
Bryce Eldridge
Hunter Barco (Pitcher)

[Jaypers]

Ian Seymour

[ThoseBackPages]

man, i am excited for the 75th Anniversary of Flagship!

[PoPCulture]

Grant Taylor. However, if the White Sox are still using him as a reliever when S1 comes out, no one will care.

[Jaypers]

Christian Moore.

[JAM061200]

Originally Posted by Jaypers

Christian Moore.

Added. Still got 2.5 months to add to this list before the cutoff for Series 1. Stacking up so far!

[ThoseBackPages]

no way thtey dont save some names for 2026 S2

[premium1981]

Originally Posted by ThoseBackPages

no way thtey dont save some names for 2026 S2

I guess its possible, but its still June. I don't think they hold any of these guys for an entire year. They have never done it before that I can recall. Pretty much everyone who comes up this year should be in Series 1. The guys breaking camp next spring should be in Series 2. That's why Series 2 usually sucks for rookies.

[ThoseBackPages]

Originally Posted by premium1981

I guess its possible, but its still June. I don't think they hold any of these guys for an entire year. They have never done it before that I can recall. Pretty much everyone who comes up this year should be in Series 1. The guys breaking camp next spring should be in Series 2. That's why Series 2 usually sucks for rookies.

i agree with you but i do not trust Fanatics

[Bosoxfan5990]

Originally Posted by premium1981

I guess its possible, but its still June. I don't think they hold any of these guys for an entire year. They have never done it before that I can recall. Pretty much everyone who comes up this year should be in Series 1. The guys breaking camp next spring should be in Series 2. That's why Series 2 usually sucks for rookies.

Say it louder for those in the back complaining about their 2025 S2 breaks!

[JAM061200]

Originally Posted by premium1981

I guess its possible, but its still June. I don't think they hold any of these guys for an entire year. They have never done it before that I can recall. Pretty much everyone who comes up this year should be in Series 1. The guys breaking camp next spring should be in Series 2. That's why Series 2 usually sucks for rookies.

I believe the September callups as well as the players who break camp will be in Series 2 of the following year. Then again Cam Smith, Matt Shaw and Kristian Campbell broke camp with their teams and they will be regulars in Update instead of being SP'd in Series 2. So who knows.

[premium1981]

Originally Posted by Bosoxfan5990

Say it louder for those in the back complaining about their 2025 S2 breaks!

I don't understand that. If people would stop opening things they don't understand, a lot of the complaining would stop. Series 2 is always about the same. Its the worst of the 3 flagship releases and it comes out as summer hits and people have less interest. Not a whole lot going for it. This year is no different. Even when I would open 100+ cases of flagship products I would always dial back Series 2 (if I did any at all). Series 1 and Update are the way to go. Almost always.

The only valid complaint right now IMO is the poor collation where you open an entire hobby case and make only 1 set. That is ludicrous. But again, I think they do it on purpose. The last post in that thread as of right now is someone opening a single hobby box and "not one decent card". Boo Hoo.

[Jaypers]

Originally Posted by ThoseBackPages

i agree with you but i do not trust Fanatics

#ThanksFanatics

[whitmm]

Originally Posted by premium1981

I guess its possible, but its still June. I don't think they hold any of these guys for an entire year. They have never done it before that I can recall. Pretty much everyone who comes up this year should be in Series 1. The guys breaking camp next spring should be in Series 2. That's why Series 2 usually sucks for rookies.

The guys who broke camp with the MLB team this year ended up in Update.

[premium1981]

Originally Posted by whitmm

The guys who broke camp with the MLB team this year ended up in Update.

Yea, they seem to keep tweaking things. But they are in there as SP's, so still technically in there I guess. But I don't see them changing anything as drastic as June 2025 rookies being held till a June 2026 release of Series 2.

[whitmm]

Originally Posted by premium1981

Yea, they seem to keep tweaking things. But they are in there as SP's, so still technically in there I guess. But I don't see them changing anything as drastic as June 2025 rookies being held till a June 2026 release of Series 2.

Well. I was going to do some looking into that. I made it one name

Hayden Birdsong made his debut 6/26/24 as was held until Series 2.

Edit: I got bored quickly, but spot checked. K Montero made his first appearance 5/29. Daniel Schnnemann 6/2. So a couple.

I do tend to agree that the June-roster expansion rookies should be series 1 and September call ups and International signings should be series 2. And April - June in Update.

[JAM061200]

Originally Posted by whitmm

Well. I was going to do some looking into that. I made it one name

Hayden Birdsong made his debut 6/26/24 as was held until Series 2.

Edit: I got bored quickly, but spot checked. K Montero made his first appearance 5/29. Daniel Schnnemann 6/2. So a couple.

I do tend to agree that the June-roster expansion rookies should be series 1 and September call ups and International signings should be series 2. And April - June in Update.

Series 1 is the kickoff to baseball season. What better way to do that than to have a loaded rookie class to spark excitement for collectors. The list above will definitely all be in Series 1. The September call ups will be in Series 2.

[Stech36]

Originally Posted by premium1981

I don't understand that. If people would stop opening things they don't understand, a lot of the complaining would stop. Series 2 is always about the same. Its the worst of the 3 flagship releases and it comes out as summer hits and people have less interest. Not a whole lot going for it. This year is no different. Even when I would open 100+ cases of flagship products I would always dial back Series 2 (if I did any at all). Series 1 and Update are the way to go. Almost always.

The only valid complaint right now IMO is the poor collation where you open an entire hobby case and make only 1 set. That is ludicrous. But again, I think they do it on purpose. The last post in that thread as of right now is someone opening a single hobby box and "not one decent card". Boo Hoo.

Except when they had the mlb the show cards. 2018 series 2 was profitable before a single parallel or hit was sold

[whitmm]

Originally Posted by JAM061200

Series 1 is the kickoff to baseball season. What better way to do that than to have a loaded rookie class to spark excitement for collectors. The list above will definitely all be in Series 1. The September call ups will be in Series 2.

They probably will be. I was responding to a comment about they would get so drastic as to hold a June call up until Series 2. So I checked, and I found a couple that they did get that drastic.

Fanatics has shown time and time again that they don't care about the way things used to be done.

If I had to pick one from that list, I'd say Otto Kemp is a potential guy that would be left out of Series 1.

[Bosoxfan5990]

Originally Posted by premium1981

I don't understand that. If people would stop opening things they don't understand, a lot of the complaining would stop. Series 2 is always about the same. Its the worst of the 3 flagship releases and it comes out as summer hits and people have less interest. Not a whole lot going for it. This year is no different. Even when I would open 100+ cases of flagship products I would always dial back Series 2 (if I did any at all). Series 1 and Update are the way to go. Almost always.

The only valid complaint right now IMO is the poor collation where you open an entire hobby case and make only 1 set. That is ludicrous. But again, I think they do it on purpose. The last post in that thread as of right now is someone opening a single hobby box and "not one decent card". Boo Hoo.

I think that's why they wound up bastardizing the most recent iterations of Heritage. People were complaining they didn't get big "hits," so they decided to chrome everything to appease that crowd, when that crowd didn't understand what Heritage actually was.

[premium1981]

Originally Posted by Stech36

Except when they had the mlb the show cards. 2018 series 2 was profitable before a single parallel or hit was sold

For sure. But to be fair, 2018 was a gold mine year. Pretty much everything was awesome. That was also when you could send in base flagship cards worth a few bucks, get them graded a 10 about 95% of the time for only $10 and then sell them for $70-$100 a pop. I made about $100k on factory sets alone from 2018 & 2019 doing this. Literally everything was gold. My wife would ask "is it really this easy?". It really was.

[premium1981]

Originally Posted by Bosoxfan5990

I think that's why they wound up bastardizing the most recent iterations of Heritage. People were complaining they didn't get big "hits," so they decided to chrome everything to appease that crowd, when that crowd didn't understand what Heritage actually was.

Heritage is/was such an amazing set. But too often the wrong buyers would wonder over to it and complain about the results. Its definitely not what it once was, but the Real One Autographs remain a favorite of mine.

[JAM061200]

Brady House added

[JAM061200]

Didier Fuentes and Chase Burns added

[Jaypers]

Jack Perkins