MLB’s Home Run Derby Was a Tale of Two Juniors
If one had to pick a single city to call the Home Run Derby’s home, Seattle would be a top choice. Not because T-Mobile Park is the most offense-friendly ballpark in the majors; that would be Coors Field, which has hosted a couple memorable Derbies. Rather, because Seattle was home to Ken Griffey Jr., the only three-time winner of the event, and easily the most iconic figure over its four-decade history.
So it was a fitting nod to Griffey that the 2023 Derby, Seattle’s first since 2001, was the home-run-iest Home Run Derby on record. With Griffey sitting on the field as a beloved hometown spectator, eight players launched a combined 341 homers into the Seattle skies Monday night, a quartet of young Latin stars reached the semifinals, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. claimed his first Derby crown, following in the footsteps of his father, the 2007 champ.
Ever since the Derby shook up its format in 2015, moving to a timed, eight-man bracket after years of failed efforts to re-energize a stale event, the showcase has been a highlight of the baseball calendar. This year’s Derby was no different. A lively, sunny night in Seattle provided no shortage of memorable moments.
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Maybe the most memorable moment came early, when Adley Rutschman showed off his two-way power. The Orioles’ second-year, switch-hitting catcher clubbed homers from the left-handed batter’s box for the first three minutes of his session, then switched to the right side of the plate to add to his total after a break. The only problem was that White Sox outfielder Luis Robert Jr. followed up with a series of titanic blasts—albeit all from the same batter’s box—to eliminate the Baltimore backstop in the first round.
Or maybe the most memorable moment came later in the first round, when second-year Mariner Julio Rodríguez delighted a delirious crowd with 41 homers, a Derby single-round record. Even Pete Alonso, a two-time winner who’s practically built to win this event, couldn’t touch Rodríguez’s score, so the Mariner eliminated the Met for the second year in a row.
(Just as fun for Mariners fans, surely, is that Julio sat next to Griffey, presumably trading hitting tips, between rounds. If only Macklemore could have joined them to complete the Seattle trifecta; alas, viewers had to settle for merely hearing his music all night long.)
Or maybe, in the end, the most memorable moment came a couple hours later, in an edge-of-your-seat championship round. Guerrero reached the finals after a blowout first-round victory over Dodgers star Mookie Betts followed by a fairly comfortable triumph over a gassed Julio in the semis. As a capper, he launched 25 more homers in three minutes in his last turn at bat—a new record in the final round under the current format. (Players receive 3:30 plus a possible 30-second bonus in the first two rounds, but only 2:30 plus a possible bonus in the final round.)
Facing Guerrero was Rays outfielder Randy Arozarena, who entered the competition with a reputation for clutch performances, from the MLB postseason to the World Baseball Classic. Arozarena surpassed Adolis García of the Rangers and Robert in the first two rounds, but he needed a new new record to beat Guerrero. Although he elevated the dramatic tension with a late flurry of homers, his final few flies fell just short, and he finished with 23 longballs to Guerrero’s 25.
This wasn’t Guerrero’s most prolific performance in the homer-hitting contest. In his 2019 Derby debut, the then-rookie was the event’s breakout star, hitting 91 total homers en route to a final-round loss to Alonso. This year, by comparison, he slugged “only” 72 across three rounds. In that sense, this is a belated win for the Blue Jays first baseman, like when Al Pacino won the Oscar for Scent of a Woman instead of The Godfather years earlier.
Yet even though Guerrero tallied fewer homers this year, the overall Derby field was the most productive in the event’s history. The eight contestants averaged 24.4 homers per round this year, the highest figure under the new Derby format, and much higher than in any previous year.
Does this graph scream conspiracy? Did MLB begin juicing its Derby balls in 2019? Possibly! That big uptick in the graph might also stem from more relaxed enforcement of the rule that one batted ball has to land before the pitcher can begin his next windup, after the silly controversy surrounding Bryce Harper’s 2018 triumph.
From 2015 through 2018, nobody reached 25 homers in any single Derby round. Since 2019, though, multiple players have done so every year (other than 2020, which had no Derby), with six such rounds—another new record—on Monday night.
But a set of suspiciously homer-friendly changes is a lot less scandalous in the actual Home Run Derby than in the regular season or postseason games that sparked such confusion over the same time period. If anything, fans are likely thrilled to see more dingers. That’s the Derby’s raison d’etre—the whole reason people watch.
There’s a lot more reason to watch now than there was a decade ago. The stars are more dynamic, the presentation more consistent, and the homers more frequent. The old Home Run Derby was only entertaining on special occasions; now, it hits the mark every year.
Source: The Ringer
