How To Watch The 2025 MLB Home Run Derby

Baseball’s annual celebration of raw power and showmanship is back. The 2025 MLB Home Run Derby takes center stage Monday night at Truist Park ahead of the All-Star Game. This year’s lineup mixes seasoned stars with breakout young phenoms, including a last-minute hometown replacement. Here is everything you need to know about the contestants, the format, and how to watch.

Home Run Derby Contestants

With Ronald Acuña Jr. out as of a few days ago, Braves slugger Matt Olson steps in to give the hometown crowd someone to rally behind. He joins a field led by Cal Raleigh of the Mariners, who enters with a league-best 38 home runs and serious momentum. Also in the mix: rising Nationals star James Wood, electric Pirates CF Oneil Cruz, and Yankees sparkplug Jazz Chisholm Jr. Here is the full list of participants and their home run totals at the All-Star Break:

• Cal Raleigh, Mariners: 38
• James Wood, Nationals: 24
• Junior Camerino, Rays: 21
• Byron Buxton, Twins: 21
• Brent Rooker, Athletics: 20
• Matt Olson, Braves: 17
• Jazz Chisholm, Yankees: 17
• Oneil Cruz, Pirates: 16

Cal Raleigh is the current favorite to win the derby with Oneil Cruz and James Woods with the second- and third-best odds, respectively.

Home Run Derby Format

The 2025 Home Run Derby introduces a few format tweaks that blend endurance, strategy, and spectacle. The competition unfolds over three rounds with a mix of timed swings and pitch limits.

In the opening round, each participant gets three minutes or 40 pitches, whichever comes first, to hit as many home runs as possible. Once that time or pitch limit is reached, players enter a bonus period that continues until they record three swings that do not result in a home run. However, if a player hits a 425-foot homer during that bonus time, they are granted a fourth out.

After all eight competitors hit, the four batters with the highest totals advance to the semifinals. If there is a tie, the longest individual home run from that round serves as the tiebreaker. The semifinals and finals shift to a head-to-head bracket format, with players seeded based on their first-round totals. Each hitter gets two minutes or 27 pitches. If a matchup ends in a tie, it moves into a 60-second swing-off. Hitters are allowed one 45-second timeout per round, but they cannot use it during bonus time or tie-breaking rounds.

How To Watch The Home Run Derby

The 2025 Home Run Derby takes place Monday, July 14 at 8 p.m. ET, live from Truist Park in Atlanta. Fans can catch the action on ESPN, with an alternate Statcast-driven broadcast on ESPN2 for those looking for deeper analytics.