The 2020 Bowman baseball card set was released in 2020 and featured prospects and young major leaguers from all 30 MLB teams. Some of the notable rookies and prospects featured included Gavin Lux, Forrest Whitley, Casey Mize, Andrew Vaughn, and Nate Pearson. It continued Bowman’s long tradition of featuring the game’s top minor leaguers and young stars.
The 2020 Bowman base set consisted of 330 cards total with both prospects and established big league players included. Some of the more notable major leaguers in the base set included Ronald Acuna Jr., Pete Alonso, Juan Soto, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and Fernando Tatis Jr. Prospects featured included Jarren Duran, JJ Bleday, Jordan Groshans, and Grayson Rodriguez. The base cards had a clean and simple design with the player image on the front and stats/team logo on the back.
In addition to the base set, Bowman in 2020 included several insert sets that added value and excitement for collectors. The Gold Label Prospects paralleled featured prized prospects with a regal gold color and foil treatments. Some of the prospects in Gold Label included Dylan Carlson, Mackenzie Gore, and Jo Adell. The inception parallels featured prospects with a dazzling iridescent foil and design elements. Several top prospects like Nate Pearson and Gavin Lux had inception cards.
Bowman also in 2020 featured autographed and memorabilia cards of top prospects through inserts like Sterling, Sterling Plus, and Box Toppers. Some of the top prospect autos included Case Mize, Spencer Torkelson, JJ Bleday and more. Besides autos, Bowman included “Hit it Big” relic cards of prospects featuring swatches or pieces of memorabilia from their pro debuts. Players like Andrew Vaughn, Nick Gonzales and Bobby Witt Jr. had these special memorabilia cards.
Bowman’s Draft Picks set returned in 2020 as well which provided cards of players drafted in the 2020 MLB June Amateur Draft including top picks like Spencer Torkelson, Austin Martin and Garrett Mitchell. In total there were 330 cards in the Draft Picks set broken down by round. This provided an opportunity to collect cards of future stars right after they begin their pro careers.
Bowman Platinum was also released as a high-end Bowman variant in 2020. The set featured 100 total cards including several parallels. Top prospects like Cade Cavalli, Emerson Hancock and Mick Abel headlined the Bowman Platinum set. Many considered Bowman Platinum to feature some of the best designs and prospects in the entire Bowman brand lineup.
A new addition to Bowman in 2020 were the “Sterling Prospects” autographed patch cards. These featured swatches or uniform pieces paired with autographs of top prospects like Nate Pearson, Casey Mize and JJ Bleday. These premium cards added to the excitement for collectors chasing memorabilia cards of some of the best up and coming young stars. The prospects autographed patches were considered some of the crown jewels from 2020 Bowman release.
Bowman broke ground by having products on store shelves and available to breakers and collectors earlier than ever before in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Several notable rookie cards emerged from 2020 Bowman including Gavin Lux, Deivi Garcia, and Alec Bohm. Some of these top rookies would go on to have success in shortened 2020 MLB season adding to intrigue of their Bowman rookie cards.
The 2020 Bowman release continued the tradition of providing a first look at the next generation of baseball stars while incorporating new insert sets, parallels and variations. Notable rookie cards emerged that would take on increased value as players developed in their careers. Overall it succeeded as THE annual baseball card set for following prospects and collecting future MLB talent during their journey from the minors to the show. Bowman cemented its place as the preeminent prospect oriented baseball card brand.
