2026 Donruss Blaster Whatever

Despite my low-level disgust with Fanatics and what they’ve done to the hobby, I’ve been feeling the need to rip some packs. Recent trips to the big box retail giants have left me leaving empty-handed. No interest in Topps series one or two. No interest in Heritage. Would buy a Blaster of Bowman if I could find any. Did pick up a 2026 Bowman Mega Box a couple months ago. It was meh… So I’ll just wait until something catches me eye…

Hmmm… 2026 Donruss? 

I’m intrigued.

And it’s not Fanatics… Could be fun?

Well, no matter what I buy of 2026 Donruss, I won’t be pulling this dream card from the set…

A few weeks ago on Reddit. Someone posted that they acquired the 2026 Optic Marek Houston Autographed Superfractor. Or whatever Panini calls their 1 of 1 cards that look exactly like Topps’ Superfractors. So this card is no longer available in packs. Not enough to talk me out of buying a little bit.

Damn what a nice card though…

Marek Houston was drafted 16th overall, by the Twins in the 2025 MLB Draft. The line on him was a major league starting caliber shortstop in the field, but would he hit enough to be productive with the bat? Well, after starting the season in High A CedarRapids, he’s made it to AA Wichita, posting a combined .325/.405/.480 slash line, between High A and AA. Oh, he’s also stolen 40 bases. A full year after signing, he’s showing that he’s every bit as good in the field as predicted, but his bat could make him a star.

Looking at who is included in the 2026 Donruss Twins Checklist shows a small grouping of top prospects. Walker Jenkins is a notable absence. Currently, I have zero cards of Eduardo Tait, Riley Quick or Marek Houston, for my Twins collection. So obviously I’d want any or all of them. Deeper into the insert checklist, there’s a chance at Kirby Puckett and Tony Oliva memorabilia cards, plus autographs of Brooks Lee and old friend, Khadim Diaw. 

(May be looking at just buying a Diaw autograph off the ebays, they’re cheap…)

Khadim Diaw (who has been promoted to AA Wichita, joining Marek Houston) now has some friendly competition at catcher, after the 2026 MLB Draft…

2026 MLB Draft - Twins 1st round pick, 3rd overall, Vahn Lackey, catcher from Georgia Tech University.

Draft experts compare Lackey to a “more athletic Buster Posey”. Well, Buster Posey led the San Francisco Giants to 3 World Series championships in 5 seasons, and will be voted into the Hall of Fame, on likely his first ballot. Sign me up for that!  The first two picks in the draft (Rock Cholowski to the White Sox and Grady Emerson to the Tampa Bay Rays) were considered the top players in the draft. Both are shortstops. The Twins are pretty well stocked in top shortstop prospects, thanks to Houston and Kaelen Culpepper (Culpepper would have already been with the Twins, had it not been for a hip injury). But the Twins need a good catcher of the future. Current Twins catcher, Ryan Jeffers, is a free agent after this season. He’s good, but will be too expensive for Minnesota to resign.

If Lackey plays as predicted, he’ll be able to replace Jeffers by the end of next season.

Bring on the World Championships!

But first, we need to stop by the Golden Sphincter...

I recently stopped at the WalMarts for a few needed things, and saw a few Blasters of 2026 Donruss in he card aisle. Mixed amongst the overpriced Fanatics offerings. I grabbed one box from the middle of the shelf and added it to my basket of antacid tablets, toofpaste, body wash and Great Value frozen sausage patties. Man of sophistication!

90 cards per box, with a retail price of $24.99… That comes down to a fraction below 28 cents per card. In comparison, Fanatics is offering retail Mega Boxes of Finest for $69.99. I briefly debated that, because I’ve previously liked Finest, and would be interested in gambling on a box. Until I mathed… The Finest box contains only 48 cards. For $70. That works out to $1.46 per card. Potential for a bigger hit is there, but that price per card leaves plenty of room for a tremendous amount of disappointment… 

I’m not in the mood to be disappointed AND down $69.99 + tax, so 2026 Donruss it is!

And I’ll write about it! Another case of buying a story, but for that price, to get some cards I may like AND a story? Well that just makes too much sense! So Whatever it is… I’ll scan and write about the cards I feel like writing about, and rank them by how much I like them. In between, I’ll interject some recent images from my phone. Just to break the monotony of looking at all of these nearly worthless Donruss cards. 

I’m not here to torture you, no one ever wants to read about this much Donruss…

******

Top 68 Cards From a 2026 Donruss Blaster

2026 Donruss Wrapper.

The box contained six 15 card packs. I like that more than nine 10 card packs. 

And I don’t want one 90 card pack.

#68 - 2026 Donruss - George Brett

Brett was actually the first card in the first pack I opened. Seeing it was the immediate reaction: “This card would be so much better with logos…” Yeah, I get it. And they chose a photo that would have blocked the Kansas City across his chest. But the road gray uniform with just a little bit of blue trim, is really bland.

However, the borders help make up for that. Using two team colors to accent the photo makes it less apparent the cards aren’t licensed by Major League Baseball. While I could go for those borders being a little smaller to allow for more photo, this design works well with the set. It looks like a flagship release, along the lines of how Donruss would have likely evolved, had it not been for the stop/start/new ownership cycle the brand has been on for nearly 30 years.

#67 - 2026 Donruss - Miguel Cabrera

Cabrera’s a good example of this. The only thing Panini had to do was Photoshop the D off his helmet. The dominant blue with a hint of orange does the heavy lifting. Looks like a Detroit Tigers card, instead of just a Detroit player card. 

#66 - 2026 Donruss - Roman Anthony

Panini isn’t allowed to use MLB team names and logos, because MLB wouldn’t allow a second company to have a license. Giving Topps (and later, Fanatics) an absolute monopoly on the card market. In 2023, the MLB Players Association pulled their license from Panini, to go exclusive with Fanatics. The monopoly deepens… However, Panini has been signing some of MLB’s top stars to individual licensing contracts.

Although Shohei Ohtani doesn’t appear in this set, a good amount of the big names are here. Mixed with a combination of Hall of Famers, local favorites and a big buncha prospects, Donruss has a rather interesting checklist. 

#65 - 2026 Donruss - James Wood

Wood is looking like a budding superstar for Washington. Only 23 and in his third season with the Nationals, he’s improving greatly every year. Not a fan of the huge strikeout numbers, but his walk rate has increased from a decent 12.3% last year, to nearly 17% this season. His average is up, home run rate is up, stolen bases are up… 

The San Diego Padres have to miss this guy…

#64 - 2026 Donruss - Trey Yesavage

Topps’ Pitcher Face is always an amusing thing, but this a rarer example of Panini Pitcher Face.

Needs more cartoony Blue Jay…

Let’s take a break from all that Donruss to look at this awesome spider web, Laura found outside the garage back door.

#63 - 2026 Donruss - Jim Thome

If Jim Thome was born 100 years earlier, some of his 612 career home runs could have been slugged as a member of the Cleveland Spiders!

#62 - 2026 Donruss - Brenden Summerhill

Summerhill is an odd choice for a 100 card prospect set. Ranked #23 in Tampa’s system, he’s not made it out of A ball, and will turn 23 in November. He doesn’t really have any tools that stick out, and hasn’t had a great deal of success in the lower levels of the minor leagues.

But here he is…

#61 - 2026 Donruss - Seth Hernandez

Another really good Pittsburgh pitching prospect, #1 in their organization. Hernandez is dominating at High A, and only 20 years old. Hopefully he makes the majors and pairs with Paul Skenes, before Skenes is traded/leaves as a free agent. The Pirates are on the fringes of contention, and have their best offense in years. Approaching the trade deadline, they say want to make needed additions, but “don’t have a lot of money to spend”.

Well then, sell the damn team to someone who does! You have one of the best pitchers in baseball, anchoring a young and promising pitching staff, with an offense somewhat able to pair with the good pitching. You either want to win or you don’t. And if you can’t throw a few additional million dollars to invest in your business, you have no business being in this business. Tell me Pirates, when exactly will it be the right year to financially support the team you bought. How about dipping into your personal slush fund, funded by MLB revenue sharing, and spend it on a bullpen, instead of keeping it as profit?

Same goes to you, Miami.

The Twins catch a little slack, since they traded some low level prospects to get a left-handed relief pitcher they sorely needed, in AJ Minter, from the New York Mets. (I definitely didn’t have the Mets selling off a valuable bullpen piece to the contending Twins, on my pre0season checklist.) Bye bye Billy Amick…

#60 - 2026 Donruss - Brandon Sproat

He looks like a guy I work with… Sproat is a bit taller though, so I don’t think he’s moonlighting. Shown in a Photoshopped New York Mets uniform, he was traded to Milwaukee for Freddy Peralta, last winter. He’s been in the Brewers rotation for most of the season. Nothing spectacular, still working the kinks out. Needs to cut back on the walks, but the rest of his numbers look decent for a rookie campaign.

Now we’re getting to the part of the Whatever, that will feature some of the low level inserts in 2026 Donruss. They are buried amongst the seemingly endless parallels found in the product. So they’re not all that unlike Topps in that regard. I’m not against multiple parallels, as long as they show some effort in design. Some of the many parallels in flagship Topps sets of the last few years have been lazy and pointless.

I’m sure Donruss has them as well.

Just a sad reality of card collecting today.

#59 - 2026 Donruss - Aaron Judge - Bomb Squad

Panini has credibility with players like Judge under contract. But I really don’t like the cartoonish background art on this card. Donruss has several insert sets that borrow on the comic book style art. They’ve done that for several years, so it’s one of their gimmicks. Kind of appreciate a consistent underlying theme to insert sets.

But I don’t really like this one. 

#58 - 2026 Donruss - Payton Tolle - Elite

Peyton Tolle has been pretty good, but not elite. Though I do really like the throwback to the 1995 Donruss Elite design. This card would have shot up the Whatever, had it not been a Red Sox player. Nothing personal Payton, I just hate the Red Sox.

But I love King Kong Bundy! 

However, that love won’t translate to the new WWE retro LJN style action figures.

That’s cool. But it’s not $35 cool. 

#57 - 2026 Donruss - Deion Sanders

Neon Deion Prime Time Sanders (or whatever nickname he’s using these days) was the first card I pulled from the box, that was a legit surprise to see his inclusion. 

#56 - 2026 Optic - Ivan Rodriguez

Optic used to be a stand alone set, as Donruss’ answer to Topps and Topps Chrome. After the MLBPA pulled their license, Panini cut back on baseball releases. Optic was demoted to an insert set, inside regular Donruss packs. Traditionally, Optic had a strong enough following (because of the parallels) to keep it around in some form. 

Never collected him, but I was a fan of Ivan Rodriguez. He earned his Hall of Fame spot in 2003, leading the Fish to beat the Yankees in the World Series. Makes me look past all those years spent with teams I don’t like.

#55 - 2026 Donruss - Jonny Farmelo

Recently promoted to AA Arkansas, Farmelo is having his best season at 21. Interesting power/speed potential, but the low average and high strikeouts are a concern. However, the name Farmelo is enough for me to follow his career.

#54 - 2026 Donruss - Jamie Arnold

Sacramento’s first round pick in 2025, 11th overall, Arnold was fast tracked to AA Midland (Texas) to open the 2026 season. He didn’t pitch at all after signing last summer. I watched him pitch in a spring training game, and he was impressive. So far, he’s been okay in the minor leagues. The amount of baserunners he’s allowed are too much, but he’s shown improvement as the season has evolved.

#53 - 2026 Donruss - Albert Pujols

Never a Cardinals fan, was always a Pujols fan. Pulling an autographed SPx rookie (redemption) card from a pack, will make you a fan of a guy making the impact he did, from day one. 

#52 - 2026 Donruss - Chipper Jones

Really hate the Braves. And never liked Larry. But in a retro/flashback sense. This card really works.

Reminds me a lot of 1995.

#51 - 2026 Donruss - Carlton Fisk

More associate Fisk with the White Sox. Because that’s when I saw him play. 

And I really really really hate the Red Sox.

#50 - 2026 Donruss - Jose Canseco

Speaking of being reminded of the 1990’s. Or late 1980’s. Pulling a Jose Canseco card today will never not remind me of the period where he was one of the hobby kings.

And a 2002 Spring Training Montreal Expo!

Whatever…

The other day I was watching the Twins play the Cleveland Guardians, and they played an earlier locker room interview with recently acquired (from Toronto) relief pitcher, Tommy Nance. I found it amusing the Cleveland clubhouse attendants made a personalized locker nameplate for “No Name”, to hang above an empty locker. I picture an obsessive, micro-managing clubhouse supervisor who won’t allow a blank nameplate holder in his locker room!

#49 - 2026 Optic - Colson Montgomery

Montgomery has massive power, and a low batting average. Goes with a whole lot of strikeouts, and a below average walk rate. Only 24, in his second year in the majors, there’s time for improvement, but his overall numbers are already down from 2025. Obviously it hasn’t mattered to the White Sox, who are shockingly still in first place, in a very weak American League Central.

#48 - 2026 Donruss - Gavin Fien

First round pick of the Texas Rangers in 2025 (12th overall), he was one of the key pieces sent to Washington for Mackenzie Gore. He’s been at High A Fredericksburg all season, but hasn’t stood out. Pretty average OPS of .760, with a whole lotta strikeouts.

#47 - 2026 Donruss - JoJo Parker

Toronto’s first round pick in the 2025 MLB Draft. So I’m on an unintentional run of 2025 Draft picks… JoJo went 8th overall, and is the Blue Jays top prospect. He’ll turn 20 in a couple of weeks, and is still in Low A Dunedin, with numbers that aren’t all that impressive. But you can see there’s potential. Even if it’s been slower to develop than with some top prospects. 

Hats like that really make the lack of logos obvious.

#46 - 2026 Donruss - Robin Yount

Yount was the Milwaukee Brewers 1st Round pick, 3rd overall, in the 1973 MLB Draft. So I broke my streak only kinda… That’s a very 1992 photo, with hints of old Milwaukee County Stadium, surrounding him. Lots to like in this one, should have ranked it higher.

#45 - 2026 Donruss - Vladimir Guerrero

Speaking of ranking higher…

Salute Vlad with an Expos card, and it moves up a minimum of 25 slots on the Whatever.

No one likes the Angels.

One of my more interesting sets of photos taken recently, would be this completely burned up car, stuffed in the back of a large parking lot. The fire consumed everything easily flammable, and was down to the frame and panels. The tires were all melted, and looked as it it would fall apart if it was moved. It had been sitting there for a while, as it had been tagged with unreadable red spray paint on one side, and used as a depository for empty beer cans and other various trash. 

It’s no longer there, so don’t bother looking for it.

Doesn’t change the fact it was awesome!

Whatever…

#44 - 2026 Donruss - Don Mattingly

Mattingly batting at Chicago’s Comiskey Park definitely brings me back to card collecting 35 years ago…

#43 - 2026 Donruss - Aaron Judge

This Judge is better without cartoon bombs going off around him.

#42 - 2026 Donruss - Pat Murphy

The Milwaukee Brewers manager gets a card in 2026 Donruss?

That’s random.

#41 - 2026 Donruss - Jacob Wilson

Just noticed the team/city name listed on the card is Oakland. Guess that solves a little dilemma, as Panini would be prohibited by license and copyright law to put the word “Athletics” on a card. But MLB also won’t allow the team to be officially recognized as belonging to Sacramento. They’ve only played a couple of guest starring games in Las Vegas (which went pretty awful) so far, so you can’t really print "Las Vegas" on the card.

I’m picturing a bunch of suits in the Panini board room debating what they should do about this. Finally, one crusty veteran of the sticker printing industry, pounds his fist on the table: “Fuck it! Just put Oakland on the cards!”

And that’s exactly how that went.

#40 - 2026 Donruss - David Ortiz - Red & Blue

Red & Blue foil is one of the more common parallels. And it does look pretty nice.

Especially with a photo that has a lot of red in it.

Still… Boston…

#39 - 2026 Donruss - Johnny Bench

No Photoshoppery necessary to clean up Bench’s uniform.

However, that New York Met in the dugout behind him required a full bleaching…

So how’s that drive to work going?

Well, I see the new cluster of retail that replaced the old Coon Rapids Blvd. BP gas station, is nearly complete. As I’d expected, it completely blocks Fantasy Gifts from view. Let’s be honest, you already know it’s there if you’re ever going to shop there. Probably not a whole lot of impulse foot traffic (no pun intended). You can’t see them from the angle of this picture, but the lines painted for the parking lot make no sense. Sure, they’ll work if you DON’T need to back out of your space without hitting the car parked behind you…

Wait a minute…. What’s that on the sign?

ENHANCE!!!

They seriously named this place “Coon Rapids Property”? That’s what the project code name should have been while it was under development. Not the final name for the retail structure. Every property in Coon Rapids is a Coon Rapids Property. This is easily one of the worst names for any business in this town. Zero thought went into this one.

Whatever…

#38 - 2026 Donruss - Reggie Jackson

Mr. October moves up a few notches due to the blue wall padding behind him. Seeing old photos on baseball cards like this, I always stare for a few seconds to see if I can figure out which stadium the photo was taken inside. Not much for clues here, I can eliminate quite a few options by remembering what other cards of this era looked like. But this one is tricky. By process of elimination, I’m concluding this photo was taken at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. The only site I was considering was Arlington Stadium in Texas.

Still going with Toronto.

#37 - 2026 Donruss - Luke Dickerson

Dickerson is a 20 year old middle infielder in the Nationals system. Currently ranked as their #12 prospect, but there’s work to be done. Moderate power and good speed, but those strikeouts are way high for his offensive potential. I like the darkened, muted chain link fence and bleachers backdrop in this photo, but I would have zoomed out a little more. 

Donruss (and Panini in general) should let their photos breathe a little more. Especially in relation to a design where the borders are so dominant. You don’t need to zoom out so far the player becomes lost in the scenery, but enough so his hands are not cropped out. Show his knees and re-center in the frame, and you improve this card greatly.

But it’s Luke Dickerson, and few people outside his family are going to care too much…

#36 - 2026 Donruss - Tony Lazzeri

Love the old black & white photos from the 1920’s and 30’s. Don’t even care there’s no NY on the cap. Lazzeri was a part of the Yankees “Murderers Row” teams of the late 20’s, placing in the top 15 for MVP voting for 7 of his first 8 seasons. Didn’t realize that Lazzeri died as young as he did. Passing away in 1946, at only 42 years old. Just 7 years after playing in his last major league game. 

#35 - 2026 Donruss - Tatsuya Imai

Tatsuya won me over when he said as a free agent: “I’d rather take them (Dodgers) down.” But then he signed with the Houston Astros and is absolutely mediocre. Do like this photo though…

#34 - 2026 Donruss - Jonah Tong

The Mets kept Tong in AAA Syracuse to start the season, as he’s their #1 prospect and only 23 years old. He’s got a big time fastball and plus change-up, so hopes are high that Tong and Nolan McLean (Deluxe) form a 1-2 combo at the top of the rotation for years to come. Of course, this is the New York Mets. A franchise that has been seemingly snakebit since 1962. Yes, World Championships and all that, but a whole lot more has gone inexplicably wrong, when it really should have gone right. 

That current roster and the results achieved are just another example.

#33 - 2026 Donruss - Bobby Witt Jr.

Nothing personal Bobby, but I’m so glad you’re on the injured list for this upcoming series against the Twins. We’ve got a sliver of playoffs hopes (and I am by no means optimistic), with a bad Royals team coming in just before the trading deadline. Witt Jr. has always destroyed us, since he came into the league a few years ago. Take the week off Bobby… The Minnesota weather issuing to be oppressively hot and humid this week anyways…

(This was written before the three game series of July 28-30. The Twins took 2 of 3, in one hell of any exciting and close series. And it was oppressively hot. Had Bobby Witt Jr. played, I somehow doubt the Twins winning 2 of 3…)

#32 - 2026 Donruss - Paul Skenes

Autocorrect always wants to change his name to Paul Scones. 

#31 - 2026 Donruss - Chase DeLauter

After Minnesota’s recent 4 games series in Cleveland, I like DeLauter a lot DeLess. 

This is a good photo through. And the reason why I liked him less is why he is this high on the Whatever.

He’s going to be good.

But Cleveland…

A few weeks back, the Twins held a promotion with All Elite Wrestling. A special ticket package was offered to get you tickets to the game, ringside seats for the wrasslin, and a stupid looking hat for your head.

No, I didn’t bite…

Instead of this being a separate event at a local arena, the AEW ring was set up on Target Plaza, just beyond the right field wall. Which was a pretty cool visual. I watched the entire game broadcast, because the high percentage of wrasslin fans attending, treated the baseball game itself as a wrasslin event. Loud chants and singing would spontaneously break out during the game. Making it more entertaining to watch. I would not be against the Twins padding their attendance numbers by giving free tickets to loud, boisterous, local wrasslin fans, for what it adds to the experience.

But ONLY for games I don’t attend.

I was disappointed that none of the AEW wrasslers came up to the booth, and sat in on an inning of the broadcast. Something that’s typically done when the Twins have an in-stadium event going on. Sponsors get TV time. After all, there’s footage of AEW’s Anthony Bowens hitting a home run during batting practice on field before the game. Let him come up and talk about baseball and wrasslin for a few minutes. Makes sense to do.

Oh well…

Wrasslin was to commence about 30 minutes after the game ended, so those who didn’t want to deal with it could empty out of the stadium. That’s all cool, but I absolutely could not stand around that many people, packed in tight, on a hot and humid July night. There’s not enough deodorant in the nation to make that a comfortable experience. 

This was the first event AEW put on in conjunction with a Major League Baseball game. And it was a pretty strategic move. WWE is promoting their upcoming two night Summerslam event at the Vikings Stupidome, so they have a large presence in town for the moment. The timing of their rival company coming in to say “check us out”, on this big of a stage is a savvy bit of marketing.

Their product is not for me, but I applaud this kind of move.

For something that wasn’t televised, a whole lot of effort was put into this 30 second promotional spot…

Whatever…

#30 - 2026 Donruss - Dave Winfield - Red & Blue

Red foil… Blue foil… Brown, orange and yellow San Diego Padres uniform.

So much loud color here that doesn’t mix well…

It’s oddly awesome.

#29 - 2026 Donruss - Jimmy Foxx

Hard to believe the legacy of Hall of Fame Philadelphia Athletics legends like Foxx will soon be 3 cities ago.

Speaking of Philadelphia…

Mike Patton is touring with Tomahawk for the first time in 13 years.

Their show in Philly last week featured this beautiful little ditty…

I love this song and don’t care if you don’t.

Whatever...

#28 - 2026 Donruss - Colt Emerson

Emerson was Seattle’s first round pick in the 2023 MLB Draft (22nd overall), and is going to be the Mariners shortstop of the future. Pretty much guaranteed that when he signed an eight year, $95 million contract, before making his major league debut. Seattle kept him in AAA to start the season, despite the contract. He was called up in May, but hasn’t looked ready for the big leagues. 

#27 - 2026 Donruss - Kazuma Okamoto

Whole lotta blue on this card…

Okamoto came over from Japan this season to hit home runs for the Blue Jays, and replace Bo Bichette. Which he has done. He’s also struck out in a ridiculous amount of plate appearances. But no one cares about batters striking out anymore, as long as they hit home runs. I don’t really agree with that.

#26 - 2026 Donruss - Jacob Misiorowski - Red & Blue

Also pulled Misiorowski’s base card. Last year, I was kind of down on Jacob’s numbers. Looking specifically at the amount of baserunners he allowed, and wondered how he could sustain success without major improvement. Well, he heard me and took offense. This season, at only 24 years old, he’s probably the best pitcher in baseball. So I was wrong about a prospect… Yet again. 

No wonder my professional scouting career never took off…

#25 - 2026 Donruss - Jesus Made

I’ll collect cards of players whose name reads like the start of a sentence! Made makes Milwaukee have another of the top prospects in the game, after graduating Jackson Chourio a couple years ago. Can’t tell for sure, but I think this is a batting cage shot. The net is pretty subdued, but it’s still there.

Wondering why Donruss opted for blue and green as border colors for the Brewers. Misiorowski has the same colors on his card. However, Robin Yount gets the traditional Brewers blue and yellow. Which are also the Brewers 2026 main colors. They only used green during that re-branding stretch of the 1990’s, and it went over like a lead turd.

A few weeks ago, Canada caught fire and I wasn’t aware of it. Went to work like everything was normal, and a few hours later, you could barely see a thousand feet in front of you. I took this picture looking directly at the sun, which usually impedes my drive home. Tonight, the smoke from the wildfires was so thick, I couldn’t see much more than five blocks in front of me while I drove. Most nights, I have to hold my hand up to block the sun, as it’s at a height just below the visor.

#24 - 2026 Optic - Randy Johnson

Randy Johnson, pitching for the Mariners in the mid-1990’s, was must see TV. Glad I got to see him pitch in person, many times over his 22 year career. Too bad this card isn’t a shiny, speckley, multi-colored parallel. But it’s nice enough to add to the Randy Johnson collection. Very low bar, to be added to that collection, as it is…

#23 - 2026 Donruss - Josh Hamilton

Only making the Whatever for the overly complicated name plate, crossing his shoulders. When the Rangers introduced that year’s full uniform change, I wondered how impossible to read some of the longer names would be. For a stretch of time, the Rangers had Jerrod Saltalamacchia, starting at catcher. Good luck reading that mess of stitched patches, from a distance of greater than 48 inches.

Because I’m a dork, I spelled “Saltalamacchia” correct, from memory.

#22 - 2026 Optic - Bubba Chandler

Bubba was the Pirates third round pick in the 2021 MLB Draft. When he declared for the draft, it was as a two-way player. He thought he could both pitch and play shortstop. Through the end of the 2022 season, Chandler posted a meager .189/.329/.364 slash, as an infielder. Wisely, he gave up shortstop to concentrate on pitching, before the 2023 season. He’s been in Pittsburgh since last August, so it’s safe to say he made the right choice.

A pure athlete could not do at 18 years old, at the lowest professional level, what Shohei Ohtani has done for years at the highest level. I’ve heard people declare that Shohei Ohtani is the greatest baseball player in the history of the game. After an initial scoff, once you start thinking about it, that’s not a ridiculous statement…

#21 - 2026 Donruss - Dwight Gooden

Pulling a Dwight Gooden card out of a pack of Donruss is very much a Junk Wax Era flashback. Known for his time with the Mets and Yankees, there’s also the lesser known two seasons with the Cleveland Indians. Plus a single 4 inning appearance with the Houston Astros. And another 36 innings with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. If I was at Panini, since they’re not allowed to show logos or team names, I’d just Photoshopitize any Gooden pitching photo. Just to give Devil Rays fans a (semi) proper Dwight Gooden card, to commemorate his magical 6 weeks as a Devil Ray.

Topps wouldn’t do it… Upper Deck didn’t do it…

Yeah… That just looks weird…

So… Top 20 then?

#20 - 2026 Optic - James Tibbs III - Orange Velocity

First of my special Blaster Optic parallels, this being one of the Orange Velocity variety. All of those random straight lines are intended to represent velocity, I guess… Tibbs III has gone from the Giants to the Red Sox via trade (for Rafeal Devers), then flipped to the Dodgers (for Dustin May), a month and a half later. Now all he needs in a trade to the Braves, then sign with the Astros as a free agent, and he can represent all of the teams I really don’t like!

#19 - 2026 Donruss - Jimmy Crooks

Catchers always are the best Panini cards, even if Crooks is just an MLB backup. The red and green combination on this photo was really appealing, and Panini didn’t have to cover anything up!

#18 - 2026 Donruss - Josh Gibson

Doubtful Crooks will have anywhere near the career Josh Gibson had. Just an absolute crime that Gibson was kept from the major leagues. The offensive record books would look a whole lot different if it weren’t for stupid racist attitudes of this country 100 years ago. Worse, we’re trending back in that direction with today’s attitudes and backwards thinking. 

And red hats…

July 12, 2026. MLB Futures Game, Walker Jenkins bats in the top of the 6th inning. 

Since my 2026 Donruss Blaster contained zero Minnesota Twins cards, and Walker Jenkins was left off the checklist completely, I’ll recognize him here. Jenkins was named to the American League Futures Squad, as a replacement for injured Twins shortstop prospect Kaelen Culpepper. Jenkins started the game in center field for the American League. He went 0-2 at the plate, with a walk and a run scored. He was also thrown out trying to steal 3rd base. 

Now if there was only a place for him to play every day with the Twins… He’s looking pretty ready for promotion. Max Clark, who was drafted by the Detroit Tigers, one pick before Jenkins, was just called up to the majors. So he beat Jenkins in that little competition in my head. But they should have both been recalled, on the same day. 

Byron Buxton is hurt again, and the Twins call up journeyman infielder Tristen Grey. Who is a terrible fielding shortstop, that can’t hit. I’ll cut them some slack with the trade deadline approaching, as our roster could look a lot different on Tuesday. But at this point, there’s no reason to keep Jenkins in St. Paul. He’s the best healthy center fielder in the entire organization, and he’s not here when we need him most.

But Tristen Gray is…

Pop those corks…

#17 - 2026 Donruss - Jackson Chourio - Diamond Marvels

Another comic book inspired insert set.

It’s colorful, but does nothing for me.

#16 - 2026 Donruss - Rickey Henderson

At least putting “Oakland” on Rickey’s card makes sense.

Though I would have loved a Seattle Mariners Rickey Henderson card, but that’s just me. Perhaps that’s something Panini should consider in the future? A set of prospects, Hall of Famers and the handful of current MLB players you have under contract. But all of the players are Photoshopped to their least recognized team. Randy Johnson with the Houston Astros… Dave Parker with the Blue Jays… Albert Pujols with the Dodgers… Jeff Innis with the Twins… Hank Aaron as a Brewer… Harmon Killebrew as a Royal… Jose Canseco as an Expo (almost)…

Panini does it occasionally. A few years back, Mike Piazza was included on a Diamond Kings card, as a Florida Marlin. Whom he played a total of five games with, before getting flipped to the New York Mets. 

How do you feel about Old Man Henderson as a Seattle Mariner, Super A’s Fan Rob?

Remind me to ask for your take on Mark Cuban’s investment group, buying into the A’s…

Whatever…

#15 - 2026 Donruss - Byung Hyun Kim

“Is his name Yum-Yum Kim?” - My former roommate.

It is now!

This card made me happy… Forever known as the guy who almost gave the 2001 World Series to the New York Yankees, he was actually a pretty good closer, for a few seasons with the D-Bags and Red Sox. Though he wore out his welcome in Boston, eventually flipping the crowd off during pregame introductions. Boston traded him to the Colorado Rockies, days before the 2005 season started, for our starting catcher, Charles Johnson. (Dan O’Dowd was such a baffling General Manager…) Boston immediately releases Johnson, after the trade. Weird set of transactions to start the 2005 season…

So how do the Rockies use Yum-Yum? 

Put him in the starting rotation! 

And he wasn’t bad, by Coors Field standards. Despite throwing with a near underhanded motion, Kim was a hard thrower, with a lot of sink on his pitches. This definitely helped him pitch in Denver, as kept a decent ground to fly ball ratio. Which will always be skewed by the altitude. He did give up Barry Bonds 715th home run. The one where he passed Babe Ruth. Say what you want about that…

Fun facts about Yum-Yum… He’s owned multiple restaurants in America and South Korea, and he loved taking naps. I didn’t know about the restaurant thing, but I remember reading about his napping habits in the Denver newspapers. He preferred to sleep between 12-14 hours a day, and would sometimes catch naps during games.

#14 - 2026 Donruss - Eli Willits

The cover model of 2026 Donruss!

Nothing against Eli Willits at all, but the Washington Nationals taking him first overall in the 2025 MLB Draft, told fans exactly what to expect from the owners. Arguably the top player available in the draft was Kade Anderson, a college pitcher widely considered near major league ready, and a future ace. (Kade was taken at #2 by the Seattle Mariners, and he’s one of the best pitching prospects in the game. The Nationals had some buzz as a young team on the rise. Drafting a strong college pitcher that could slot into the rotation and possibly turn into an ace, is exactly what this team needed. 

Another high school shortstop isn’t what a young team on the rise needs. Especially when one of your best players is an All Star shortstop, with years of team control… James Wood is becoming a superstar, prospects are starting to develop at the major league level, the rotation has some talent but needs help. But this draft pick told the fan base, just as they’re coming out of a slow rebuild, that has been underway pretty much since the 2019 World Series ended, is going to continue indefinitely. 

The offseason proved it was time again for rebuilding, instead of adding. 2025’s Nationals All Star starting pitcher, MacKenzie Gore was traded for prospects (including another shortstop). And that current All Star shortstop, C.J. Abrams, under team control for several years, is being shopped at the trade deadline for prospects. An investment in this team over the last year could have seen them become strong contenders. They were close. 

But not good enough! Tear it down and start over!

Nice to see the Washington Nationals are being run a whole lot like the Montreal Expos were. Guess that answer wasn’t a new stadium after all… Perhaps a whole lot less greed from the ownership group?

Willits is playing well in A and High A, with an OPS close to .900 over 80+ games. And he doesn’t turn 19 until December. I’m sure by the time Willits is ready for Washington, in mid-2028, the Nationals will be starting another rebuild.

#13 - 2026 Donruss - Gil Hodges

Great photo. You’ve got a big palm tree and some old bleachers. Definitely a colorized black and white photo, but looks great on this card. A Dodgers card I will keep!

#12 - 2026 Donruss Unleashed - Charlie Condon

See that snake there? It’s pretty fucking scary!

Condon had a slow and injury riddled start to his Colorado Rockies career. 90 games into his 2026 season with the Albuquerque Isotopes, he’s hitting .290/.410/.566, with 20 home runs. Production the endlessly rebuilding Rockies will absolutely need. Not like they’re going to see anything out of that Kris Bryant contract. Hopefully, Jonah Hill is able to find some pieces that actually work out. Losing Chase Dollander to an Internal Brace Procedure, absolutely doesn’t help.

#11 - 2026 Donruss - Zyhir Hope

Zyhir’s the fifth ranked prospect in the Dodgers (unfairly) loaded farm system. He’s a power and speed prospect, posting near .900 OPS at AA Tulsa, as a 21 year old. Lotsa strikeouts, but his rate is coming down a little, this year. We’ll see if he’s still a Dodger after the upcoming trade deadline. My money sees him shipped to Detroit in the inevitable Tarik Skubal trade…

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Before we get to the Top Ten, here’s a little update to a story from last year…

The former Riverdale WalMarts has a new and appropriate (temporary) tenant!

Long time readers will recognize this former big box retailer as the one I personally closed with a wager on 2025 Topps Chrome Blasters. One from the local Targets, and one from the local WalMarts. Whichever store netted me the best card, won the right to stay open for business. The other store was hereby BANISHED from my hometown!

2025 Topps Chrome - Shohei Ohtani - Ultra Violet Green

The card responsible for saving the Riverdale Targets, and forcing the WalMarts to leave town.

Still a very ugly card, but it’s still selling for $300+, because Ohtani…

Now we’ve (finally) reached the 2026 Donruss Blaster Top 10!

#10 - 2026 Donruss - Jace LaViolette - Jersey King

LaViolette would be my guaranteed Blaster hit. Ho-hum… And a prospect whose stock fell, and continues to fall. Predicted by some to be the #1 overall pick in the 2025 MLB Draft, LaViolette fell all the way to the 27th pick at the end of the first round. Signing a pro contract hasn’t translated to success either. As a 22 year old in High A, a slash of .230/.330/.440, isn’t overly promising. Especially when it comes with a strikeout rate approaching an unbelievable 50%. Understandable why the Guardians have him ranked as only the organizations number 11 prospect. Doesn’t look good for his future.

It’s great looking card though.

#9 - 2026 Donruss - Leo Durocher

Speaking of great looking cards, another colorized black and white photo of the legendary Cubs manager is my top ranked base card in the Blaster.

Everything else from here, are the parallels.

Well, I found my 1 autograph (nope) or memorabilia card… Now I’ve got my second Orange Velocity card coming up very soon, and we’ll see about ranking a Flex parallel. No Whammy! card, and that’s fine. I think they look really dumb to begin with. I hated oversized head cards since Score put out that abysmal All Stars subset in 1991 and 1992, making them really rare isn’t going to make me like them today.

#8 - 2026 Optic - Cam Smith - Orange Velocity

Hey! There’s that second Orange Velocity parallel card!

Much as I hate the Houston Astros, this works well under the Orange Velocity gimmick. Wouldn’t rank nearly this high if Mr. Smith didn’t play for a team featuring a lot of orange in its color palate. See what happened to Tibbs III? #20 wasn’t only because he’s a Dodger…

#7 - 2026 Donruss - Cal Ripken - Rockets

I can’t give Panini a free pass when I give Fanatics so much crap about the endless, pointless parallels. Donruss likes to have parallels with the borders consisting of emojis. (At least I think they’re emojis… I don’t know, not something I make a habit of paying attention to.) This year’s edition has some cute little rocket ships. Why? No idea what that is supposed to represent. At least they paired those cute little rocket ships with a Refractory foil border. When I opened the Blaster, I saw that each of my cute little rocket ships cards had different colored foil. Knowing cards in 2026, I’d assumed the cute little rocket ships parallel would then have anywhere from 7-42 different colored foils. Because why wouldn’t they…

Either way, the purplish foil border over those cute little rocket ships, looks pretty good with the black and orange. Plus Cal Ripken Jr. has always been one of my favorite players, dating back the Junk Wax Era. This card will absolutely have a place in the Cal Ripken Jr. binder.

Speaking of purple…

#6 - 2026 Donruss - Marcello Mayer - Purple Laser

Serial numbered to 49… So that’s a thing…

The scan doesn’t do a good job in showing the “lasers”. It’s a very attractive card of an overhyped Red Sox prospect. In 114 career major league games, Mayer has posted a dismal .223/.278/.346 slash. Clearly not what Boston would have liked from the 4th overall pick in the 2021 MLB Draft. Other than some of his Bowman Draft cards, this may be the only Marcello Mayer card I’m keeping.

#5 - 2026 Donruss - Aiden Miller - Rockets

See what I mean about the cute little rocket ships parallel? Cal Ripken’s card was quite purple, Aidan Miller’s is pretty damn blue. 

Aiden Miller was first offered to the Twins in the Jhoan Duran trade, but Minnesota preferred catcher, Eduardo Tait. Tait is still very young, and has question marks. Miller was recently promoted to AAA, has made improvements to his swing and is putting up some intriguing numbers. He’s still likely to be a third baseman, instead of a shortstop, but I would have preferred Miller to Tait. A year after the trade, looks the Phillies #2 prospect vs the Twins #4 prospect. Tait’s ranking will absolutely drop in the next list. New catcher, Van Lackey will place above him. Not to mention turning up the pressure on Tait, with a newer and better catcher to compete with.

#4 - 2026 Optic - Roberto Alomar - Black Circles

Yeah… Roberto Alomar is kind of a garbage human being. But he was one of my favorite players back in his Blue Jay days. After all the stories of his off-field antics came to light, it’s hard to defend him. Coincidentally the organization he worked for after his playing career ended, until sexual harassment issues popped up and MLB placed him on the ineligible list. 

That wasn’t an isolated incident of him being terrible. 

Cool card though.

#3 - 2026 Optic - Bryce Rainer - Flex

So this Blaster did have one of those advertised Optic Flex parallels. It’s Flex because of the little yellow bicep emoji. GET IT!!! I like it for the plain silver refractor the bicep emojis get to float on. Looks better than the scan shows. Plus, it’s serial numbered to 149. Nice to get two serial numbered cards from a $24.99 Blaster. 

Rainer is a good prospect as well. Detroit’s First Round Pick in the 2024 MLB Draft, 11th overall. Currently at #2 in the Tigers system, behind Max Clark, who was just promoted to the major leagues. Bryce turned 21 a month ago, and is doing pretty ok in High A. Questions are rising if he will hit for average, or just power. And where will he play? The Tigers have shortstop locked down for a while, with McGonigle, and Rainer hasn’t looked very great at short.

#2 - 2026 Donruss - Carter Jenson - Rockets

Really liked this particular cute little rocket ships parallel. The blue and purple, with even a little green fits this photo perfectly. And Panini didn’t have to remove any logos. That being said, I don’t have much else to say about Salvador Perez’s heir apparent. Only that I hope the Twins upcoming series in Kansas City will be as exciting as the Royals series in Minneapolis was this week. Turning a two out, bottom of the 9th, 3-0 deficit, into a 4-3 win on a walk-off Grand Slam was one of the best Twins moments I’ve seen in quite a while…

Way to go Roger Clemens’ kid!

Speaking of the Royals…

Over Memorial Day Weekend, Laura’s nephew took us to a St. Paul Saints game. It was the first one I’ve made it to in all of my years in Minnesota. Their ballpark is pretty cool, though I’d like to see another game when the attendance isn’t 3,000 more people than there are seats in the stadium. I’m not exaggerating. That was the case for the game we went to.

The Omaha Storm Chasers (the Kansas City Royals AAA club) were visiting St. Paul for the week, and this was the final of the six game series. Omaha won that night, but it didn’t matter much to us. It was a fun atmosphere to watch a game, and a great night. I’ll write about it eventually…

In preparation for that eventual story, I recorded the TV broadcast of the game, for future material. One Storm Chaser in particular had my interest… Omaha reliever, Beck Way.

2021 Bowman Chrome - Beck Way - Autograph Refractor

Back in 2021, Way was my “Guaranteed Certified Autograph”, inside a box of Bowman. So a future Yankees relief pitcher may have a little value… Well, Way was then traded to the Royals about a year later. Well, great… Name one Kansas City relief pitcher anyone has ever given a crap about… Maybe Dan Quisenberry. He ruled!

Way’s signature stood out. He put some effort into that ornate B. I looked online for other examples of Beck Way’s signature. It has definitely deteriorated over time. Some of the recent in-person ballpark signatures I’ve seen people trying to sell, look like a generic scribble. Cool that this one was on a serial numbered Refractor parallel.

A few weeks later, the Royals promoted Beck Way to make his Major League debut. Coincidentally, against the Twins at Target Field. 

Much like his game in St. Paul, I don’t remember how it went…

Whatever…

It’s finally time to announce the #1 card pulled from a random 2026 Donruss Blaster!

#1 - 2026 Optic - Satchel Paige - Black Circles

I love this card. Really too bad the scanner doesn’t pick up the circles part of the Black Circles parallel, very well. This card is beautiful in person. You have an iconic photo of Paige posing in (what I’m assuming to be) Sportsman’s Park III, in St. Louis. Yeah, it would be better with the Browns logos on his cap and jersey, but it doesn’t take too much away from the overall presentation.

Too bad this card doesn’t show him with the Kansas City Athletics, where he pitched in his final game. That would have kept the Kansas City streak going, to end the Whatever… Satchel Paige was 58 years old (allegedly), and he started the final game of the 1965 season, against the Boston Red Sox. Satchel pitched 3 innings, striking out 1 and giving up one hit (to Carl Yastrzemski). His last prior pitching appearance in the majors was in 1953, with the St. Louis Browns. He was only 46 that season.

His Negro League statistics (1927-1947) are likely incomplete, and he missed a lot of time where he was pitching outside of organized baseball leagues, due to contract disputes. So it’s impossible to fully appreciate how dominant a pitcher he was for multiple decades. Damn shame he was kept out of the major leagues until he was 41 years old.

In case you were interested, here is the standard card back. 

Pretty unspectacular.

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So what’s the verdict?

I didn’t pull anything overly special, but I did feel like I got my money’s worth. I really enjoyed opening these, because I got enough visually appealing cards, that I will keep, to call it a good value. And I’m saying this when I didn’t pull one card from the main team I collect. The insert cards are colorful and fun, and this is the best crop of parallels I’ve seen out of Donruss since Fanatics forced them to completely re-imagine their flagship baseball set.

Individual tastes may vary…

Totally understand the prejudice for the whole “no logos” thing, and accept that Panini cards will never have near the resale value of Topps. But I’m at the point in the hobby where I absolutely don’t care about either of those things in relation to the current product. I want to enjoy cards. Not gamble on them. Next time I’m needing to scratch that baseball card ripping itch, I’ll probably grab another Blaster of Donruss. I’m done with the lottery, I want something fun. I’d love to get another random shot at another ten or so of these parallels. 

And I still need the Twins (and Rockies) cards from the base set!

Now I can get back to the latest round of The Big Sort… I’m up to the Cincinnati Reds!

Found a couple nice Ken Griffey Jr. Refractors (2000 Finest and 2000 Bowman Chrome Teen Idols) tucked away, forgotten about for years… Now I have to figure out how many Joey Vottos, Jay Bruces, Barry Larkins, and Hunter Greenes I want to keep.

Then it’s the Red Sox up next for sorting…

Look forward to getting rid of a whole bunch of those!

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Well… Hopefully it was repoted.