This year’s Home Run Derby will be held Monday, July 13, at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. It’s a great ballpark for dingers. According to Statcast, it’s the fifth-best home run park in baseball. That will make for a fun Home Run Derby, which has a new swing-based format this year. The clock is no more. (Hopefully it doesn’t devolve into a Take Pitches Derby.)
One player we’re unlikely to see in this year’s Home Run Derby: Mike Trout. The Angels star is on the injured list with a hamstring strain and stated he’s likely to pass on the event. Too bad. Trout is from Millville, New Jersey, which is about 20 miles south of Philadelphia. The Home Run Derby would have been something of a homecoming for the future Hall of Famer.
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Astros star Yordan Alvarez will skip the Home Run Derby after batting injuries last year. The eight-player Home Run Derby field will trickle out over the coming days and we’ll keep track of the participants as they’re declared. Here’s who we know will take their hacks in the Home Run Derby on July 13.
Rice ready to cook
Yankees first baseman/DH Ben Rice on July 7 signed on to participate in this year’s Derby. Going into that July 7 slate of games, Rice led the Yankees with 25 home runs, a tally that was also good for third place on the American League leaderboard. Overall, the lefty-swinging Rice is slashing .267/.360/.565 in his age-27 season. This year, he’s got some of the best batted-ball indicators around, and for his big-league career, he’s averaged 34 home runs per 162 games played. Three Yankees have won the Derby before, and Rice’s teammate Aaron Judge was the most recent in 2017.
Caminero becomes first to commit
On June 30, Rays third baseman Junior Caminero became the first player declared for the Home Run Derby. That came after a monster week that saw him slug six home runs in four games. On the date of the announcement, Caminero was fifth in baseball with 22 home runs, and was hitting a stout .292/.384/.548 overall.
Last season, Caminero became only the fourth player in history to hit 40 home runs at age 21 or younger. His 45 homers were second to Hall of Famer Eddie Mathews’ 47 homers as a 21-year-old in 1953. Hall of Famer Mel Ott (42 homers at age 20 in 1929) and 2023 NL MVP Ronald Acuña Jr. (41 homers at age 21 in 2019) are the only others to do it.
Players who hit this many home runs at this young an age tend to be become super duper stars, and Caminero is certainly on that trajectory, if he’s not there already.
This will be Caminero’s second Derby; last year, he came in second behind Cal Raleigh.
