Scott Oberg is a professional baseball relief pitcher who has spent his entire 8-year career with the Colorado Rockies. While he may not be one of the biggest stars in baseball, Oberg has developed into a reliable late-inning arm out of the Rockies bullpen. As a result of his long tenure and solid performance at the major league level, Oberg has accumulated a respectable collection of baseball cards over the years. Let’s take a closer look at some of the notable Scott Oberg baseball cards that exist.
One of Oberg’s earliest card releases was in 2015 Topps Series 1. As a rookie that year who had seen his MLB debut in 2014, Oberg didn’t receive much fanfare in the base set. His cardboard debuted provided collectors an affordable first issue to track his career. The standard base card featured an action photo of Oberg windmilling on the mound in his Rockies jersey and cap. The card stock and design were consistent with Topps flagship sets of the time. While relatively common today due to high production runs, the 2015 Topps card was an important starting point for Oberg collectors.
After establishing himself as a contributor in Colorado’s bullpen in 2016, Oberg saw more prominent card placements the following year. 2017 Topps Series 1 again featured Oberg in the base set, but this time with an updated picture from the prior season. He also appeared in the 2017 Topps Opening Day and All-Star inserts. One of his best and most sought after rookie year cards came from 2017 Topps Turkey Red. Part of Topps’ popular red parallel line, Oberg’s Turkey Red has a gorgeous foil stamped design with bright primary colors that make it really pop on card shelves. Numbered to only 50 copies, this ultra-short printed parallel remains one of Oberg’s most valuable rookie cards.
Oberg’s breakout season came in 2019 when he made 69 appearances out of the Rockies bullpen with a 2.25 ERA and 79 strikeouts. He started to garner attention as one of the better setup arms in baseball. This success translated to increased card product placements. 2019 Topps Series 1 and Series 2 included Oberg updates. But more limited inserts like 2019 Topps Finest Refractors and 2019 Topps Chrome Autographs really highlighted his emergence. The latter featured Oberg’s on-card autograph swatches and were limited to one per hobby box. This made his chrome auto parallel quite scarce and popular with Oberg PC collectors.
In the past two seasons, Oberg has continued excelling in high leverage relief situations for Colorado. Injuries have cost him time, including undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2021. Regardless, when healthy he remains a key bullpen piece. Modern releases like 2021 Topps Series 1, 2022 Topps Update Series, and 2022 Topps Finest have kept Oberg’s name out there. But collectors are still eager to obtain editions from his breakout years like 2018-2019 when he was at his statistical peak. Especially as an under-the-radar Rockies pitcher, Oberg’s rarer parallels and autographs from those seasons carry a premium today among dedicated fans and accumulators.
Unfortunately, due to injuries Oberg has not appeared in a game since August 2019. He spent all of 2020 and 2021 rehabbing from Tommy John and attempting comebacks, but complications have so far kept him sidelined. At age 31, it remains to be seen if he will ever pitch again in the majors. But if he can mount another return, it would give collectors something new to chase and perhaps increase interest again in his previously produced cards. Regardless of his future on the mound though, Oberg has created a respectable if quiet collection over his career that many Rockies and bullpen enthusiasts enjoy assembling and holding onto.
