Major League Baseball announced changes to the 2024 All-Star Home Run Derby on Sunday evening. The event will take place on July 15 at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.
The rules are being changed because players who participated expressed concerns that the pace of the event was too fast, according to ESPN’s Buster Olney.
In each of the competition’s three timed rounds, players will see up to 40 pitches. Since the Derby switched to a timed format in 2015, batters and their chosen pitchers have been swinging as much as possible. As Olney notes, each competitor averaged more than 43 swings per round in last year’s event.
Some players who had taken part in previous Derbys complained about how tiring the competition was and feared that the pace was much faster and more frenetic than usual batting training, which would put them at risk of injury.
The actual time limit for each round remains the same, with three minutes for each of the first two rounds and two minutes for the final round. However, if a batter earns bonus time by hitting at least two home runs of 440 feet or more, that is no longer timed. He can also earn a fourth out by hitting a home run of 400 feet during bonus time. It is conceivable that a batter could continue hitting home runs until he finishes ahead of his opponent.
Under previous rules, hitters received 30 seconds of bonus time at the end of each round and could add an additional 30 seconds.
The format of the Derby will also change, from head-to-head to the top four of the first round progressing to the semi-finals. The tie is broken by the longest home run hit in the first round.
The full field of eight players in the 2024 Home Run Derby has not yet been announced, but MLB said Sunday that Baltimore Orioles shortstop Gunnar Henderson will be among them. The third-year sensation has 26 homers, tied with Shohei Ohtani for the second-most in the MLB, behind Aaron Judge.
“This will be my first competitive game ever, so I just want to be competitive,” Henderson told ESPN, via MLB.com. “…But yeah, as long as I can put in some competitive rounds, I’m happy.”
Last year Vladimir Guerrero Jr. won. of the Toronto Blue Jays the All-Star game.
