last gasps

here we are in the middle of june, heading officially in to summer as of today, and the baseball season is in full swing. this year feels a bit different to me thanks to the vast reduction in the number of card releases that have occurred so far - even when you count the 2022 products that were pushed in to this calendar year.

with panini losing their mlbpa license and fanatics streamlining the topps umbrella of products, i figured now would be a good time to share some of the "last gasps" we've seen from panini and 2022 products in general.

i purchased a big lot of panini stuff sometime last year due to the fact that there were some dodgers shown in the listing images, and i wasn't disappointed. these cards are from 2022 panini absolute hobby:

mookie betts icons insert

sandy koufax icons red spectrum parallel insert

andre jackson rookie force relic

dennis santan tools of the trade relic/patch auto

kudos, i guess, to panini for showing santana as a dodger even though he was a texas ranger for the last part of the 2021 season and all of 2022. he's currently a met.

of those players, only sandy koufax stands a chance to be in panini product at this point, but he hasn't shown up yet (2023 panini donruss is, i think, the only 2023 product to be released so far).

here are some from the retail version of 2022 absolute:

roy campanella

cody bellinger

and betts

betts shows up again in my collection with this 2022 panini chronicles xr card

this 2022 panini diamond kings aficionado card

and this 2022 panini donruss unleashed pink fireworks insert parallel card

i think panini is running out of animals to use on the unleashed cards.

moving on to 2022 panini donruss optic, here's a walker buehler lights out insert

and now back to 2022 panini chronicles for this freddie freeman spectra holo parallel

more holo parallel craziness with a 2022 panini donruss holo pink kenley jansen card

and a 2022 panini select holo parallel of julio urias

here's a trea turner 'extreme team' insert from 2022 panini absolute

and a regular old base card of sandy koufax from 2022 panini diamond kings

one of my favorite things about 2022 cards was seeing albert pujols in more releases as a dodger, including 2022 panini absolute - in base

and insert form

along with 2022 panini prizm

koufax and pujols may continue to show up in panini product, as their only options are retired players and prospects beginning in 2023. 

these new releases will look a lot like 2022 panini prizm draft picks, from which this peter heubeck card comes

this is a burgundy cracked ice prizm card, numbered to 23

can't wait to see more peter heubeck cards in future panini releases!

2023 has also seen the release of some 2022 products, so here is a look at some other sorts of "last gasps". i picked up a few dodgers from 2022 bowman platinum

just in case this was my only opportunity to see joey gallo as a dodger. bowman platinum may have come out in december of 2022 now that i think about it, but i didn't pick up these cards until 2023

i also picked up some 2022 topps finest dodgers

and i know these were released in 2023.

in fact, it wasn't until april of this year that we saw 2022 topps stadium club chrome hit the market, and so far i've added a few of the dodgers to my collection:

mookie betts

walker buehler

roy campanella

will smith

and a joey gallo xfractor

i am usually more interested in the new photos used in the chrome set, but i did pick up vladimir guerrero's card

which uses the same photo as the regular old stadium club set.

so by now we've seen the last gasps from panini in terms of current player sets, but we are still waiting on at least one 2022 release - that would be topps chrome platinum anniversary. and i think that 2019 upper deck chasing amy is still "tbd" as far as its release date. someday, maybe.