First-time Home Run Derby sluggers we want to see: Elly De La Cruz, Cal Raleigh and more
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First-time Home Run Derby sluggers we want to see: Elly De La Cruz, Cal Raleigh and more
The 25th Home Run Derby is set for July 14 at Atlanta’s Truist Park. Six writers from MLB.com, Yahoo Sports and ESPN picked one potential first-time Derby contestant. Elly De La Cruz, Cal Raleigh, Oneil Cruz and Junior Caminero are among the players they want to see in the event. The winner will be announced on July 15 at 8 p.m. ET. The event will take place at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., in 2023. It will be the first time the event has been held outside of the U.S. and the first year it’s been run by the Yankees and the Mets. It’s also the last time it will be held in the same city as the All-Star Game, which will be played in New York City in 2028. The last time the Derby was held in Atlanta was in 1964. It was the first Derby to be held outside the United States and was held at the New York Mets’ Citi Field.
Of course, certain names immediately jump to mind, such as Pete Alonso, Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani. But they have all participated in the event before, and while baseball fans everywhere would no doubt be happy to see any of them return, let’s turn our attention here to some fresher faces.
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To do that, we asked six writers — three apiece from MLB.com and Yahoo Sports — to each select one potential first-time Derby contestant they’d like to see at next month’s event. Here are the sluggers they picked.
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Cal Raleigh, Mariners
Raleigh is one homer away from tying Johnny Bench’s 1970 record of 28 by a catcher before the All-Star break. It’s mid-June. He’s on pace for the greatest power-hitting season by a catcher. We need to see that in the Derby. No catcher has ever won, and no switch-hitter has won outright. Raleigh could end both of those droughts.
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The Derby is about impressive home runs, but it’s also about putting on a show. Raleigh can switch sides of the plate, like Adley Rutschman did in Seattle in 2023. He also has an incredible nickname. Can you imagine how the crowd might react if he has a particularly electric round? A whole stadium chanting “Big Dumper”? We need that.
— Sarah Langs, MLB.com
From Jac Caglianone to Elly De La Cruz, there are plenty of young MLB sluggers to get excited about — and hope to see in the Derby. (David Heringer/Yahoo Sports) (David Heringer/Yahoo Sports)
Elly De La Cruz, Reds
De La Cruz, still 23 years old, has appeared in only one All-Star Game. And while he got off to a slow start this season, Cincy’s superstar shortstop has posted a 1.157 OPS thus far in June and looks like the club’s most deserving All-Star. With his outrageous raw juice, De La Cruz would be a sensational watch in the Derby. And considering he’s a switch hitter, he (like Raleigh) could pull off a Rutschman switcheroo kind of thing.
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Earlier this year, De La Cruz cranked a homer 451 feet into Kansas City’s fountains, his seventh career blast longer than 450 feet. In the Derby, De La Cruz would probably swing from the left side and would surely send a few moon shots flying over Truist Park’s Chophouse restaurant in right field.
— Jake Mintz, Yahoo Sports
Oneil Cruz, Pirates
The thought of Cruz hitting 120-plus mph lasers at the Home Run Derby has to become a reality at some point. Since Statcast began tracking in 2015, no hitter has hit the ball harder than Cruz, who crushed a home run with a 122.9 mph exit velocity against the Brewers on May 25, the hardest-hit ball tracked since ‘15. That broke the previous record, held by … Cruz, who hit a 122.4 mph single off the right-field wall at PNC Park in 2022.
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With 13 home runs in his first 65 games, Cruz is tracking for the first 30-homer season of his career, in part due to his contact quality taking a big leap forward. Cruz leads all qualified hitters with a 96.6 mph exit velocity and ranks second with a 23.6% barrel rate and 59.7% hard-hit rate.
That elite contact quality has shown up in a big way on his 13 home runs. Of the 78 players who have hit at least 10 home runs, nobody is hitting them harder than Cruz (110.8 mph), while his 409-foot average home run distance is only bested by nine hitters. At 26 years old, Cruz has really blossomed into a budding star, and his off-the-chart tools have started translating into real production. That makes him the perfect fit for the Derby.
— Brent Maguire, MLB.com
Junior Caminero, Rays
Caminero perfectly fits the general criteria for a first-time Derby participant. Turning 22 years old just days before the Derby, Caminero is one of the youngest players in the big leagues and has begun to establish himself as an offensive centerpiece for the Rays. The Derby is an ideal event to spotlight an ascendent young talent, and Caminero clearly fits the bill. His game-changing talent at the plate is most evident in his 100th percentile bat speed, which enables tremendous raw power that would be an absolute treat to see in the Derby at Truist Park.
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Perhaps more importantly for this event, Caminero also has a flair for the dramatic: He already boasts a lengthy highlight reel of exhilarating home runs, whether that’s in the big leagues or the Dominican Winter League, making it easy to get excited about how he would perform in a competition in which the sole purpose is to launch balls into outer space over and over and over. Oh, and it should be noted that he has 17 home runs this season, most on the Rays and fourth in the AL. Caminero is an easy pick to be invited; I hope it happens.
— Jordan Shusterman, Yahoo Sports
Jac Caglianone, Royals
So Caglianone’s been in the big leagues for a little over two weeks and just hit his first two MLB home runs … so what? The kid has monster power. Caglianone earned the highest power grade of any of MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 prospects entering 2025, and the Royals rookie has been hitting bombs all along his journey to the majors.
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There’s the 459-footer he crushed in Triple-A a few weeks ago. There’s the 115.4 mph rocket he hit in spring training. There’s the estimated 516-foot monster shot he hit in college. The list goes on.
Caglianone was built to hit dingers. The Home Run Derby is the perfect showcase for him. Why not put one of baseball’s most exciting power-hitting prospects on the national stage against the biggest sluggers in the sport?
— David Adler, MLB.com
James Wood, Nationals
Wood is going to be an All-Star this season, and he should also be in this year’s Home Run Derby. After hitting nine home runs in 79 games last year, the 6-foot-7 Nationals outfielder has started to tap into his immense potential and his massive power in his second season in the big leagues.
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The 22-year-old already has 20 homers this year — including a walk-off in the 11th on Thursday — which puts him on pace for a possible 40-homer season. Watching his lofty swing launch balls into the Chophouse at Truist Park would be a delight.
— Russell Dorsey, Yahoo Sports