The 2026 T-Mobile Home Run Derby will feel quite new.
It will have a new lineup of eight sluggers, a new format, and a new place to watch it.
Here is everything you need to know about this year's event.
When is the 2026 Home Run Derby, and how can I watch it?
The 2026 T-Mobile Home Run Derby will get underway from Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia on July 13 at 8 p.m. ET. For the first time, the Derby will be streamed live on Netflix.
What is the format for this year's Home Run Derby?
Since 2015, there has been a time element involved in the Derby. That is no more. There have been changes to the format, so pay attention.
Instead of trying to hit as many homers as possible during timed rounds, each of the eight Derby participants will start each round with a finite number of swings: 20 in Round 1, 15 in Round 2 and 15 again in the final round.
All swings will count against a player’s swing allotment, whether it results in a homer or not. However, a player who homers on his final swing of a round can keep swinging until he doesn't hit one out.
The players with the top four home run totals from the first round will advance to the semifinals, where they’ll be seeded based on their first-round homer totals. They will face off head-to-head (No. 1 vs. No. 4 and No. 2 vs. No. 3) to determine the two finalists.
What happens in the event of a tie?
Ties in the first round will be broken by home run distance, with the player who hit the longest homer among the tied participants advancing. In the semifinals and finals, ties will be broken by three-swing swing-offs until a winner is determined.
Has Philadelphia previously hosted the Home Run Derby?
Yes, once before. It occurred at Veterans Stadium in 1996. There were 10 competitors in the Derby for the first time, and it ultimately boiled down to a duel between two of the most prolific home run hitters of all-time: Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire.
Both Bay Area boppers easily advanced to the finals, as Bonds led the way with 10 homers in the semis, and McGwire recorded nine. In the finals, Bonds trailed by two homers with one out left. He then homered on three straight swings to earn his only Derby title.
What happened in last year's Derby?
Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh was 8 years old when he predicted that he would win the Home Run Derby one day. That day came 20 years later, when he defeated the Rays' Junior Caminero in the finals, 18-15. Raleigh's triumph inside Atlanta's Truist Park was made even more remarkable by the fact that he advanced out of the first round only because of a a longest-homer tiebreaker that he won by less than an inch!
There were a total of 210 home runs on the night, with the average homer distance being 432 feet. That was the highest in any non-Coors Field Home Run Derby since 2017.