Participants For The Derby Set
Everything You Need To Know Before the T-Mobile HR Derby on Monday
The T-Mobile Home Run Derby is set to entertain thousands yet again on Monday at 7 PM CST in Arlington. This year’s Home Run Derby is certain to be entertaining, with a perfect mix of baseball’s young superstars and veteran sluggers. Along with exciting players, Major League Baseball also introduced new rules for this years derby. Later in this post, I will write about each of the eight participants, the favorites & list what players should have been in the derby but aren’t.
Participants
Gunnar Henderson | BAL
Henderson, who became the first player to announce he would participate in the derby this year will be participating in his first ever Major League HR Debry. Henderson won last year’s Rookie of the Year Award as well as being named the American League’s starting shortstop this year. Gunnar has hit 27 home runs this season, with a career total (276 games) of 59 long-balls.
Bobby Witt Jr. | KC
Bobby Witt Jr is another young superstar who is participating in his first derby. Witt Jr, a Texas native has hit 15 home runs this season through 94 games. In total, Kansas City’s slugger has hit 65 balls over the fence in 402 games.
Alec Bohm | PHI
Bohm joined in on the home run derby after he was named the NL’s starting third baseman in his first All-Star game. Major League Baseball’s leader in doubles has additionally hit 11 home runs this season with a career total of 55 homers in 547 games. Although Bohm hasn’t seemed to be a power hitter, he did participate in the 2015 Connie Mack Home Run Derby where he brought home first place; Bohm will now look to win his first MLB Home Run Derby.
Jose Ramírez | CLE
Ramírez, a 12-year MLB veteran slugger, will be participating in his first MLB home run derby and has hit 23 homers this year with a career total of 239. The veteran slugger’s best season came in 2018 when he hit 39 long-balls with Cleveland.
Pete Alonso | NYM
Alonso, a two-time Home Run Derby Champion is back in the derby yet again and looking for his third title. This season the 6-year New York Met has hit 18 home runs, which isn’t his best performance so far, in 2019 as a rookie Alonso hit 53 home runs. In his career however, the “Polar Bear” has hit 210 dingers in 776 games with the Mets and will go into the derby as a favorite to win yet again.
Adolis García | TEX
Garcia is set to participate in his second straight home run derby, this time, representing the hometown Texas Rangers. This season Garcia has hit 17 homers that add into his 114 career homers. Adolis was eliminated last year in the first round to Randy Arozarena who is not in the Derby this year, this year he will be looking to become the fourth player in MLB history to win the derby in front of their home crowd.
Marcell Ozuna | ATL
Atlanta’s designated hitter is another veteran on this list of participants. Ozuna has hit 24 home runs so far in 2024 and has a career total of 260 long-balls within 1399 games in his major league career. “The Big Bear” is known for his power hitting and will certainly be a favorite going into the derby.
Teoscar Hernández | LAD
Again, another veteran will be participating in the T-Mobile Home Run Derby this year in Teoscar Hernández. Hernández will be participating in his first derby even though he had the opportunity to compete before as he only wanted to apart of the event if he was also and All-Star. This year, the slugger who has hit 19 dingers for the Dodgers will finally get his chance to win the derby. In his 9 seasons as a major leaguer, Teoscar has hit 178 home runs in 903 games with Houston, Toronto, Seattle, & Los Angeles.
Who’s Favored???
Pete Alonso
Alonso has already won 2 derby titles and is a win on Monday away from tying Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr.’s MLB record of three derby wins.
Adolis Garcia
Garcia helped carry the Texas Rangers to a World Series championship last year with many clutch home runs. Now, he will try to keep that rally going at Globe Life Field as a representative for the hometown Texas Rangers in the T-Mobile Home Run Derby.
Marcell Ozuna
Ozuna is a major league veteran with a ton of power, and he could very certainly take home the win on Monday night.
Who Should Be in the Derby But Isn’t?
Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
This isn’t even a question— Vlad Jr. was the Home Run Derby champion last year in Seattle, why isn’t he in the derby this year? Sure, he’s having a down year but I feel like he should at least get a chance to make it back to back derby wins.
Bryce Harper
Harper won the 2018 Derby in front of the hometown Nationals fans but hasn’t participated since. So far this season he has hit 20 home runs for the Phillies this year but unfortunately suffered a hamstring injury on June 27th which put him on the 10 day IL. Even though he only served the minimum 10 days on the IL, I think the reason he isn’t in the derby is because it was not certain how long he would be out + Philadelphia & Harper most likely didn’t want to risk further injury.
Thank you for reading this post on Cleanup Sports. I hope you enjoyed the article. The T-Mobile Home Run Derby will stream on Monday, July 15, 2024 on ESPN at 7 P.M. CST; the event will be taking place at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.
