It’s almost hard to believe that the 2026 Major League Baseball series is half over; but the annual All Star Game and Home Run Derby are less than a month away. The annual summer baseball break is July 13 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia; which ties in nicely with the nation’s 250th birthday.
This year MLB and T-Mobile have announced some changes to the format for the Home Run Derby.
The biggest change is that this year the annual batting event is being broadcast live on Netflix.
And the clock is gone. No more timed batting but a return to a swing-based format. No more outs, a batter gets his full allotment of swings.
The eight players each get 20 swings for round one to hit the ball as far as possible. And all swings count – homers and non-homers.
In rounds two and three the batters get 15 swings each.
But, if a batter hits a home run on his final swing, he can continue to bat as long as he continues to hit home runs. Once he does not hit a home run, his turn is over.
The bonus round is also gone this year and no more brackets for the first round.
In case of a tiebreaker…the longest homer wins in round one but the batters will engage in a three bat swing-off in the second and third rounds.
Round one is pool play with the top four batters moving on to round two.
In round two the number one batter faces off against the number four batter; and batters two and three will face off against each other.
The two winners in round two will move on to round three to crown a champion.