The 2022 baseball card season was another strong year from Panini America as they continue to compete with industry leader Topps for collectors’ dollars. While Topps remains the most popular brand for release schedules, parallels, and player licensing, Panini has made great strides in recent years boosting the value and appeal of their modern baseball cards.
Let’s take a look at some of the top Panini baseball card releases, rookies, parallels, and standout cards from 2022 that collectors were buzzing about. With the sheer number of products, it’s impossible to cover everything in depth but this article will highlight many of the most notable cards and sets that helped make 2022 a banner year for Panini baseball cards.
Donruss Baseball
As usual, one of Panini’s flagship baseball brands is Donruss. The retro-styled design is a favorite of collectors young and old. Some of the top Donruss releases this year included:
Donruss Optic (May): This insert-heavy release features refractors, color parallels, and the hugely popular Galactic parallels featuring outer space-themed designs on the cards. Rookies like Adley Rutschman and Bobby Witt Jr. were hot in this set.
Donruss Baseball (June): The core set that is packed with rookies, veterans, and all levels of parallels. Colorful parallels like Green /199 and Purple /50 were popular chase cards.
Donruss Elite Extra Edition (August): A higher-end release with 1/1 printing plates, autographs and memorabilia cards mixed in regular base cards. Prospects like Elijah Green were a big draw.
Donruss Diamond Kings (September): This set features sharp photo variations of stars photographed in front of iconic city skylines. Judge, Ohtani, and Acuña Jr. were some of the most coveted cards in the set.
Within the Donruss brand, rookie cards of Witt, Rutschman, Green, and Oneil Cruz were very hot and held their value well throughout the year. Parallels like the Galactic refractors and lower-numbered color variations also gained collector interest.
Panini Prizm Baseball
Panini’s flashy Prizm brand continued to be hugely popular in 2022. While collectors may prefer the aesthetics of Donruss, Prizm cards have a reputation for holding strong value long-term. The biggest Prizm releases included:
Prizm Baseball (February): This early-year release allowed collectors to get rookie cards of 2021 draft picks like Termarr Johnson and Harry Ford while the hype was still fresh. Green shimmer parallels /49 were a major chase.
Prizm Platinum (April): Featuring a clean white design, this set had 1/1 printing plates and low-numbered parallels like Gold /10 that created a buzz. The Luis Matos 1/1 superfractor plate sold for over $1,000.
Prizm Draft Picks (June): Focusing on prospects from the 2021 and 2022 draft classes, this set gave collectors an early opportunity to snatch up cards of players like Brooks Lee and Elijah Green before their first pro seasons.
Prizm Update Series (August): Delivering rookie debuts of mid-season callups like Oneil Cruz and players not in the initial Prizm release, this was a popular late-summer product.
Within Prizm, the biggest rookie hits were Green, Termarr Johnson, and Cruz. But parallels across all Prizm sets like Golds, Silvers, and Reds gained serious collector attention as the brand maintained a strong reputation in the marketplace.
National Treasures Baseball
As one of Panini’s flagship high-end releases, National Treasures always draws huge interest from collectors chasing one-of-one hits. The 2022 edition in particular had several memorable cards:
A 1/1 Luis Arraez patch auto patch sold for over $4,000 on the secondary market.
A dual auto patch of Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton numbered to 5 sold for close to $3,000.
A dual auto patch of Juan Soto and Ronald Acuña Jr. numbered to 10 also gained a lot of buzz.
Rookie patch autos of Green, Witt, and Rutschman parallels were highly sought after by teams collectors.
Memorabilia cards featuring rare material like game-used uniforms, bats, and balls from iconic players always gain attention in National Treasures.
While the odds of hitting a big card are slim, the hunt alone makes National Treasures one of the most intriguing releases each year. The combinations of patches, autographs and rare memorabilia in this set create a true “treasure chest” experience for collectors.
Donruss Football x Baseball
In 2022, Panini did a special mashup release combining their Donruss football and baseball brands into a single crossover product. The results were some truly unique cards:
Dual sport patches featuring material from a player’s football uniform on one side and baseball jersey on the other side. Tom Brady/Joe DiMaggio was one such popular parallel.
Autographs cards putting baseball HOFers alongside NFL stars like Joe Montana alongside Hank Aaron.
Rare 1/1 printing plate parallels combining the two sports like a Aaron Judge plate card mixed with a Tom Brady jersey swatch.
While a bit of a novelty crossover, collectors enjoyed chasing these truly one-of-a-kind mashup cards marrying their two favorite sports together. Parallels with multiple swatches or autographs gained serious interest.
Additional Notable Panini Baseball Releases:
Immaculate Collection (March): Low-numbered, high-end parallels and autographs in this luxurious release created a buzz.
Contenders Baseball (April): On-card autographs of stars and prospects were a big draw in the basketball-inspired design.
Chronicles Baseball (May): The hobby’s first “mega box” offering tons of packs created fun breaks online. Color Blast parallels popped.
Select Baseball (June): Clean design with Silver Prizm parallels /49 and Gold /10 were standouts alongside rookie autographs.
Authentic Baseball (July): On-card rookie signatures of Witt, Green, and other top prospects gained attention.
Playoff Baseball (September): Memorializing postseason heroes, parallels of Harper, Alvarez and others sold well.
Prestige Baseball (October): Higher-end release at the tail end of the year with 1/1 Patch Autos and Printing Plates.
While Topps remains the 800-pound gorilla of the baseball card market, Panini made major strides in 2022 by delivering a huge volume of popular releases across all levels. Rookies like Witt, Rutschman, and Green led the way on the card front, while innovative parallels and one-of-one hits created collector buzz throughout the year. Panini’s focus on prospects alongside established stars continues to drive interest in the long-term.
