MLB Home Run Derby 2024: New rules, format, tiebreakers, predictions, and more

The All-Star break is upon us, which means that all eyes in the baseball world will be firmly focused on what’s going on at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas for both Monday and Tuesday. Monday’s festivities include the annual MLB Home Run Derby, which has a field that could best be described as “intriguing.” This season’s edition also includes a tweaked rule set, so if you’re unaware of any changes to the event then you happen to be in the right place since we’ll go over all the changes right here.

As far as the field goes, we’ve got a mix of both usual suspects and interesting newcomers. For starters, Pete Alonso is once again competing in the Home Run Derby and he’ll be looking to tie the record for most Derby victories. Then you have the mandatory hometown representative in Adolis García, who will surely be looking to electrify the crowd much like he did on a near-regular basis during last season’s Postseason. Jose Ramírez competed in the 2022 Derby but as it turned out, he was severely hampered by a thumb injury that forced him to bat right-handed. He’ll be bating left-handed this time and will certainly be hoping to escape the first round this time around.

Additionally, the current second-place holders in the season-long home run race for both the American and the National League are competing in this as well — Marcell Ozuna and Gunnar Henderson will each be competing in their first Derby and looking to make an impact on their first appearance. Meanwhile, Royals star Bobby Witt Jr. will be looking to show off what he’s capable of in terms of power. Finally, while Alec Bohm and Teoscar Hernández may not even be the biggest home run boppers on their own team, they’ll be looking to prove that neither of them are slouches when it comes to mashing dingers.

This is where all of the changes are coming into play. For starters, there’s no seeding anymore which means that we won’t have a bracket to show off. That won’t come until the second round — instead, the seeding for the semifinals will be determined by how each of the top four hitters do in the first round. In case of a tie, the longest homer hit will determine who gets the higher seed. Meanwhile, the previous tiebreaker format (a 60-second “swing-off” with no timeouts) remains intact but will only be used from the semifinals onward. No. 1 takes on No. 4 and No. 2 takes on No. 3 in a traditional bracket format.

This season, there’s also a 40-pitch limit in addition to a three-minute time limit for each hitter in the first two rounds. The two-minute limit for the finals is still intact but there’s now a 27-pitch limit for the final round as well. Additionally, hitters can still gain “bonus time” by hitting long homers during the normal period but the “bonus period” is now measured in terms of how many pitches it takes for a hitter to record three outs — meaning, any swing that doesn’t result in a homer. On top of that, hitters can pick up a fourth out if they hit a homer of at least 425 feet during the bonus. Also, you can no longer call timeouts during the bonus — hitters can still call one timeout during regulation.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and get a tiny little spicy with this prediction. While it would be easy to say that one of homer leaders like Marcell Ozuna or Gunnar Henderson could translate their in-season performance to the Derby, it’s also just as feasible to see both of them underwhelm a bit in their respective debuts. Pete Alonso has indeed won the Derby twice but this will also be his fifth time competing so while he easily has the most experience of anybody in the field, that’s no guarantee for victory, either.

Adolis García is an intriguing candidate as well but the odds of the hometown guy winning are never really in the hometown guy’s favor — it’s only happened three times in the history of the competition since it became an All-Star event back in 1985. Jose Ramírez does seem like a decent pick though, given that he’s got experience and will be hitting lefty and also be healthy for this go around. With all of this being said, I’m going to make my pick from the three underdogs. Particularly, I’m going to go with the guy who happens to have the longest homer hit amongst the competitors so far this season:

Yeah, I’ll take Bobby Wit Jr.

Date: Monday, July 15

Time: 8:00 p.m. ET

Location: Globe Life Field, Arlington, TX

TV: ESPN

Stream: WatchESPN