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April Spotlight Drop 5 in MLB The Show 26 is your last chance this month to grab top rewards, including Lightning Elly De La Cruz and Retro Lightning Chipper Jones. If you want to power through Diamond Dynasty efficiently, here’s how an experienced player would tackle it.

1. Priority Rewards to Target

• Lightning Elly De La Cruz (94 OVR)
  This is the free “sweat equity” reward. Collect all five unsellable Spotlight cards from Drops 1–5:
  Kevin McGonigle, Jo Adell, Jhoan Duran, Mike Trout, and Ben Rice. Lock them into the April Lightning Collection to instantly unlock Elly.
• Retro Lightning Chipper Jones (94 OVR)
  Requires 16 out of 18 Spotlight series cards from April packs. Focus on completing XP paths and earning packs for a cost-efficient route.
• Top Program Card – Ben Rice (93 OVR)
  The final Drop 5 program reward. Rice is versatile with a catcher secondary position and a strong left-handed power bat, making him a great addition to your lineup.

2. Fast Completion Strategy

• Offline Grind: Start by finishing all Moments in Drop 5 to rack up instant progress. Then hop into Play vs. CPU games on Rookie difficulty for quick stat-based missions.
• Maximize Efficiency: Use a lineup fully stacked with April Spotlight players. This lets you earn Parallel XP (PXP) for multiple missions at once.
• Skip the Extreme: Don’t waste time on extreme-difficulty Moments—they’re slower and risk stalling your XP grind. Standard missions plus repeatable PXP give the fastest results.

3. Market & Collection Tips

• Stubs Management: Avoid buying Drop 5 packs for 30,000 stubs unless you’re chasing Chipper Jones. The expected value is usually lower than the cost.
• Collection Tiers:
  • 5 cards → Free April Spotlight Pack
  • 10 cards → 93 OVR Jose Soriano with an “Outlier” sinker
• Event Synergies: Play the April Showcase Event to earn free Spotlight Packs. These can help you hit the 16-card requirement for Chipper Jones without spending stubs.

4. Notable Drop 5 Program Cards

 Focus on finishing stat missions first and lock in your Spotlight players as soon as possible. That way, you’ll unlock Elly for free and have a head start toward Chipper Jones, all while saving stubs.