Quote:
Originally Posted by Bobfather
What is the best way to teach a player a new position? I would like to move Alex Bregman to 2B. There were rumours last offseason that that was the original plan when he signed with the Red Sox. He seems to have the ratings to be a good 2B. 2B has been my biggest offensive black hole all season. I just traded back for Devers, who will slot into 3B. But both players are currently on the IL for a month. Thanks. If the solution is to edit experience, please make a compelling argument that it is not cheating. I would have just edited it in the past, but I no longer wish to do that. In real life, I would just have him take groundballs at second while on the IL.
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Me - "how does ootp26 development labs work - can a player learn a new position during the season?"
AI - "Good questions. Here’s how the Out of the Park Baseball 26 (OOTP 26) “Development Lab” works — and whether a player can learn a new position mid-season.
ChatGPT: "✅ What is the Development Lab in OOTP 26
The “Player Development Lab” (Dev Lab) is a feature where you assign a limited number of players to specialized training programs in the offseason (and sometimes spring training) to work on skills: defense, pitching, base-running, stealing, plate discipline, even learning a new position if possible.
OOTP Wiki
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Steam Community
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In OOTP 26 you can configure how many players you send (lab size — by default 8, but you can raise it up to 30).
OOTP Wiki
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You get improved UI feedback: progress bars, midterm reports (so you can see if a player is progressing or struggling), giving you more control over whether to continue a program.
Sports Gamers Online
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The effectiveness of a lab program depends on multiple factors: the player’s age, personality (e.g. adaptability), current ratings, coaching staff quality, and — for defensive/position-work — likely how “natural” the switch is (how close the new position is on the “defensive spectrum”).
OOTP Developments Forum
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OOTP Wiki
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�� Learning a New Position: How It Works in OOTP (and with Dev Lab)
In general, in OOTP (not just with Dev Lab) a player can learn a new position by playing games at that position. Over time — typically by playing regularly, especially in the minors or spring training — they’ll build “experience” at that position. Once enough experience is gained, the game will assign a new position rating for that position, which appears on the player’s profile.
ootpdevfiles.com
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OOTP Wiki
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The game uses a “defensive-spectrum” hierarchy for how easy or hard conversion is: easiest are positions like 1B or corner outfield (LF/RF), harder are more demanding positions like SS, 2B, CF — and catcher is the hardest to convert to.
ootpdevfiles.com
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According to official documentation, once a player “learns” a new position (i.e. gets a rating), he never “loses” that rating.
ootpdevfiles.com
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How Dev Lab Interacts With Position Learning
The Dev Lab offers a “Learn new position” program (or “Improve Defense at [position] / Infield / Outfield / Catcher” depending on what is already unlocked) among its available training options.
Notion
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However: In the case of the “Learn new position” program, you cannot directly choose which new position the player will learn. Instead, the staff/the game pick the new position based on what they deem feasible.
OOTP Developments Forum
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The benefit of using the Dev Lab (versus just playing games at the position) is that — if successful — the lab not only starts the position experience/training, but often gives a small rating boost for that position (e.g. jump from unskilled/unrated to some baseline defensive rating).
Notion
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OOTP Developments Forum
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Because of that, many players use the lab to “force-teach” a new position (especially one somewhat adjacent on the defensive spectrum) to add positional versatility.
reddit.com
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reddit.com
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�� Can a Player Learn a New Position During the Season (Not Off-Season / Spring Training)?
Here’s where things get more nuanced:
The “official” mechanism to gain experience at a new position is by playing games in that position — that works whether it’s spring training, minors, or the regular season.
OOTP Wiki
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That said: the Dev Lab training programs are designed for offseason or spring training. The Dev Lab window — at least traditionally — opens offseason and remains until just before the season begins.
reddit.com
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OOTP Wiki
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According to community discussion on the developer forums: the “Learn a new position” assignment in Dev Lab does not let you pick which position; and the Dev Lab is meant as an offseason/spring-training tool, not a mid-season fix.
OOTP Developments Forum
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Many players on forums suggest that if you want a player to learn a new position, it’s best done in spring training or minors, not during a full season — though nothing seems to strictly prohibit you from trying to rotate them into a new position mid-season; but that has to rely on “just playing them there” — not the Dev Lab. For example:
“players learn positions quicker during spring training … Force start them in the player strategy.”
reddit.com
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“Players gain XP by simply playing a position … closer a player is to the max XP for a position, the slower the XP gain is.”
reddit.com
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So — yes, a player can learn a new position during the regular season, but only by actually deploying them at that position in games (or minors), accumulating enough experience. The Dev Lab’s “learn new position” program is generally not intended for mid-season use.
⚠️ What to Know / What’s Limited
With Dev Lab, you don’t control which position gets learned — the game (through staff) picks a “sensible” new position.
OOTP Developments Forum
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Converting to “right-side of spectrum” spots (e.g. SS, 2B, CF, or catcher) is much harder and takes longer than easier spots (1B, corner outfield). Some positions — especially catcher — may never result in a strong defensive quality, even if trained.
ootpdevfiles.com
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OOTP Wiki
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If the player is older, has low adaptability/work ethic, or doesn’t have suitable physical attributes (arm, range, etc.), the conversion will be slow or may fail.
reddit.com
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The Dev Lab programs are of varying difficulty; “Improve Defense” and “Learn new position” are marked as hard once you get out of base-running or bunting drills. So outcome is uncertain and could be nothing or even negative.
OOTP Wiki
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OOTP Wiki
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�� My Recommendation (Given What You’re Doing — Custom Schedules / Mods / OOTP Use)
Since you already use OOTP heavily (with custom schedules etc.), if you want to convert a player’s position:
Use the Dev Lab over offseason/spring training if possible — especially for easy conversions (e.g. 1B ↔ corner outfield, or similar spectrum-adjacent moves).
If you miss that, during the regular season you can still move a player to a new spot — just ride out the experience accumulation by giving them regular playing time there.
Don’t expect a “quick-flip” to a Gold Glove level — conversions take time, patience, and realistic expectations, especially for tougher positions.
If you like — I can run through the exact Dev Lab “Learn New Position” odds and mechanics in the current 2025 patch of OOTP 26 (how fast XP builds, how big a rating bump, typical conversion success rates).
Do you want me to grab those numbers for you now (based on recent patch notes / dev documentation)?"