It is 2025 MLB All-Star Home Run Derby Day in Atlanta!
Some of the most dynamic Home Run strikers in baseball will target Truist park stands on Monday (8 p.m. HE on ESPN) in one of the most anticipated events in the summer.
While the prospect of a consecutive champion is out of the image – the winner of 2024, Teoscar Hernandez, is not part of this year’s field – a certain number of exciting stars will take the ground, including Matt Olson of Atlanta, who replaced Ronald Acuna Jr. barely three days before the event. Will Olson run in front of his crowd? Will Cal Raleigh show the power that led to 38 circuits in the first half? Or will one of the youngest participants take the title?
We have your one -stop shop for everything related to the derby, predictions to live updates once we have started analysis and to take away at the end of the night.
Results of the MLB Home Run derby
First round
1. James Wood, nationals
2. Brent Rooker, Athletics
3. Junior Caminero, Rays
4. Oneil Cruz, pirates
5. Byron Buxton, twins
6. Jazz Chisholm Jr., Yankees
7. Cal Raleigh, Mariners
8. Matt Olson, Atlanta Braves
Live updates
Who will win the derby and who will be the finalist?
Jeff Passan: Raleigh. His swing is perfect for the derby: he leads the MLB this season as a traction percentage and a percentage of a driving ball, so it is not as if he needed to recalibrate it to succeed. It has also become a prolific striker on the right side this season – 16 circuits in 102 Bats – and its ability to switch between right and left -handed pitching offers a potential advantage. No switch stroke (or receiver elsewhere) won a home derby. The Big Dumper is ready to be the first, beating Buxton in the final.
Alden Gonzalez: Cruz. He can be extremely incoherent at this stage of his career, but it is perfect for the derby – young enough to have the endurance necessary for a taxing event which could become exhausting in the heat of Atlanta; left -handed, in a stadium where the ball brings the right field better; And, above all, capable of hitting bullets at incomprehensible speeds. Raleigh will present a good show on both sides of the plate but will arrive in second position.
BUSTER OLNEY: Olson. He is actually struck for Acuna, and because he received a word in the last 72 hours of his participation, he did not have the tour of practice that other competitors lived. But he is the only person in this group who has already done the derby, which means that he has known the accelerated pace, the adrenaline and the push of the crowd.
His launcher, Eddie Perez, knows something about performance in a full stadium in Atlanta. And, as Olson recognized on Sunday in a conversation, the park generally promotes left -handed strikers due to the distances larger than right -handed strikers must cover in the left field.
Jesse Rogers: Olson. The advantage in the field will mean something this year because hitting more than 90 degrees of heat and humidity will be an additional challenge in Atlanta. Olson understands this and can be punctuated accordingly. In addition, it was a late addition. He has nothing to lose. He will survive young dollars on the ground. And I don’t put Raleigh lower than the second – his first half shouts that he will be in the final against Olson.
Jorge Castillo: Drink. His gigantic power is not disputed – he can take baseball bullets at all fields. But the slight defect in its energy set is that it does not hit the ball in the air almost as often as a typical knock. Wood ranked 126th on 155 qualified strikers through the majors in percentage of fly ball. And him always failed 24 home circuits this season. So, in an event where he will do everything he can to lift baseball bullets, hitting the flying balls will not be a problem, and Wood will show this gigantic power on a victory over Cruz in the final.
Who will strike the longest home run at night – and how far?
Pass: Cruz hits the ball stronger than anyone in the history of baseball. It is the choice here, at 493 feet.
Gonzalez: If you exclude the Coors Field version, there were only six Home Runs Derby of the Statcast era which traveled more than 497 feet. They were compiled by two men: the judge of Aaron and Giancarlo Stanton. James Wood – Every 6 feet 7 inches, 234 pounds of him – will become the third.
Olney: James Wood has easy and judge -type power, and he will erase the choke with the longest circuit. Let’s say 497 feet.
Rogers: I hope he won’t hurt himself, but Buxton will burst his massive force and crushed a bullet at least 505 feet. I do not see him advance far in the event, but for a swing, he will owner the night.
Castillo: Cruz hits the baseball balls hard and far. It will crush a few bombs, and we will reach 500 equal feet.
Who is the only slugger that fans will know much better after the derby?
Pass: Buxton crowned his first half with a cycle on Saturday, and he will carry this in the derby, where he will remind the world why he was the n ° 1 prospect of baseball in 2015. Buxton’s talent was never in question, just his health. And with his good body, he has the opportunity to present a show that fans will not forget soon.
Olney: Caminero is not a big name and was not a high -end hope like Wood was earlier in his career. Barely 3 and a half years ago, Caminero was transmitted to the Rays by the Cleveland Guardians in a relatively minor November profession for the Tobias Myers launcher. But since then, he has refined his ability to cover the land inside and flourishes this year in a player with ridiculous power. He will not win the derby, but he will open his eyes.
What is the only moment that we will all talk about long after the end of this derby?
Gonzalez: The incredible distances and speeds that will be reached, in particular by Wood, Cruz, Caminero, Raleigh and Buxton. The warm and humid time of Truist Park will only help the breathtaking power that will be exposed on Monday evening.
Rogers: Exhaustion on the faces of the striker, swinging for the Home Run after a circuit stroke in the heat and humidity of the Hot-Hot-Hot!
Castillo: Blast of 500 feet from Cruz and a bunch of other lasers which he strikes in the first two laps before lacking gas in the final.
