As you may know, Topps recently released it’s 2022 Holiday set, which on the surface seems like a holiday cash-in that’s just a new parallel to the base set.
I found out last year that when a player in the set changes teams during the season, Topps might update them to new teams in Holiday… and sometimes the updates are more up-to-date than Topps Update. Screwy, right? Especially since Update hasn’t been out *that* long.
So I decided to leverage my personal Access database and figure out which player/team combos are in 2022 Holiday but are not in the three series of Flagship. Once I realized there are a bunch of cards like that I decided to share that information here.
If you find something is missing or wrong, please let me know and I’ll update this.
The 2022 Topps Holiday cards which are updated from Series 1 / 2 / Update
***OR***
which don’t exist in 1 / 2 / Update
(Footnotes where applicable)
| Card # | Player | Team | Footnotes |
|---|---|---|---|
| HW-7 | Joe Dunand | Atlanta Braves | (3) |
| HW-13 | MacKenzie Gore | Washington Nationals | (4) |
| HW-18 | Eric Hosmer | Boston Red Sox | (1) (5) |
| HW-20 | Emmanuel Rivera | Arizona Diamondbacks | |
| HW-26 | Colton Welker | San Francisco Giants | (7) |
| HW-55 | Juan Soto | San Diego Padres | (2) |
| HW-66 | Brandon Marsh | Philadelphia Phillies | (1) |
| HW-73 | Josh Bell | San Diego Padres | (1) |
| HW-80 | JP Sears | Oakland Athletics | |
| HW-84 | Rylan Bannon | Atlanta Braves | (8) |
| HW-106 | Taylor Ward | Los Angeles Angels | (9) |
| HW-110 | Johnny Cueto | Chicago White Sox | |
| HW-112 | CJ Abrams | Washington Nationals | |
| HW-125 | Whit Merrifield | Toronto Blue Jays | (1) |
| HW-149 | Gosuke Katoh | New York Mets | (6) |
| HW-170 | Noah Syndergaard | Philadelphia Phillies | (1) |
| HW-188 | Andrew Benintendi | New York Yankees | (1) |
FOOTNOTES:
(1) Holiday uses the same image as Heritage High #’s (possibly cropped differently)
(2) There’s no base Update card for Juan Soto but Update base card US-22 (which shows Trevor Story) has a SPed variation which shows Soto with the Padres and uses a photo that is different than Holiday
(3) Joe Dunand is a fun case of “Why is he here?” Originally a 2nd round draft pick, he was called up to the Marlins this year but was designated for assignment after 3 games. The Braves picked him up on waivers, but before they put him in a game he was outrighted to their Triple-A team in Gwinnett. Update shows him with the Marlins, Holiday uses the same image as the update card but is photoshopped to show a Braves uniform.
(4) MacKenzie Gore was sent from the Padres to the Nationals in the Juan Soto deal, and while he pitched for the Padres during the season, after the trade the Nats sent him to Triple-A and he has yet to make his Nats debut. The Holiday card is a photoshopped version of his Update card
(5) Eric Hosmer was acquired at the deadline, appeared in 14 games and was recently released by the Red Sox.
(6) Gosuke Katoh is a “zero year” guy; he was briefly on the Mets active roster, but never played in a game and will be playing in Japan in 2023. He’s shown in Update with the Jays (and using the same image as Holiday) and in High #s with the Mets (Portrait)
(7) Colton Welker played for the Rockies in 2021, was released in July, picked up by the Giants… but never played for them. He became a free agent after the season and signed a minor league contract with the Giants, so he could potentially play for the Giants in 2023
(8) The Orioles got Rylan Bannon in the 2018 deal that sent Manny Machado to the Dodgers. This year Bannon was waived by the O’s, went to the Dodgers, was waived by the Dodgers and went to the Braves, played one game for the Braves before being put on waivers again. After an offseason stop with the Cubs, he’s currently with the Astros.
(9) Taylor Ward is a really odd situation. He didn’t change teams and played 135 games for the Angels this year… but he’s not in Series 1, Series 2 or Update. However he is in Holiday, “original” Heritage and Living Set. Huh.
The Shlabotnik Report 
Good post/information – Now to make things more interesting is there an english or japan version (short set) out there or coming up for 2022 Topps