Aaron Judge lands MLB The Show 26 cover but there's a conspiracy theory afoot

Aaron Judge graced the cover of the popular video game "MLB The Show" back in 2018, coming off his rookie season when he was robbed of MVP after the voters gave it to Jose Altuve in 2017. Yankees fans will get to celebrate in a different manner in 2026, as Judge landed on the cover again in this year's edition after his third MVP award.

Pretty exciting, if you're a video game enthusiast. But even beyond that, Judge will be featured as Team USA's captain for the upcoming World Baseball Classic. Captain America. Yes. Very cool. That event has garnered so much more recognition over the last decade, and now the US will look to dethrone Japan in the most anticipated WBC yet.

But ... we must ask ... was this Judge's cover to begin with? Dating back to 2006 when the game's name changed to "MLB The Show", the only repeat cover athlete was Joe Mauer in 2010 and 2011. Why? We have no idea. But Judge is the first since then after getting the nod this year.

Judge is far and away a bigger household name than Mauer. He's a far better player than Mauer was, too. If there were any names to repeat, it'd be Judge and Shohei Ohtani. But it seems MLB had made it a point to spread the wealth and give opportunities to other deserving guys. For crying out loud, Jazz Chisholm and his 101 OPS+ (up until that point in his career) graced the cover back in 2023.

This time around, there were some odd developments. First of all, the announcement came late. In fact, the announcement that there would be no cover athlete came late on Monday. Then, less than 24 hours later, Judge appeared.

Yankees' Aaron Judge lands MLB The Show 26 cover ... but was that supposed to happen?

What was that about? Is it possible ... Detroit Tigers star Tarik Skubal, who just won back-to-back Cy Youngs and is slated to pitch for Team USA, was the original choice before his uncertain future took hold after the headline-grabbing arbitration incident?

Trade rumors once engulfed Skubal, but then it was speculated the Tigers were going to see out their 2026 season and run it back one more time with their star whether they could afford him in free agency or not. Then the left-hander filed for $32 million in arbitration with the Tigers countering at $19 million, which accounted for the largest gap in the history of the system.

If there is intel that Skubal could be traded before Opening Day, then it's no surprise MLB pivoted this quickly to pick Judge, who is a layup for a second showing. Baseball fans might not be the happiest with it, but it's obvious why that was the backup plan.

In our eyes, we see no issue having Skubal in a Tigers uniform even if he were to be traded in the near future. He is the Tigers. His career started with the Tigers and has found his greatness with them. He's one of the faces of baseball, and it shouldn't matter what uniform he's wearing in two months' time.

Perhaps MLB felt differently. Perhaps Skubal was never part of the plan because they couldn't bypass Judge as Team USA's captain. We'll probably never know.

But the manner in which all of this went down has lent credibility to this particular conspiracy that will undoubtedly continue making its rounds on social media.