What Are the Home Run Derby Rules?

The 2018 MLB Home Run Derby is here, and should provide the usual theatrics before the 89th All-Star Game at Nationals Park in Washington D.C. on Tuesday.

Coverage from our nation’s capital begins at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN.

This year, eight players – no former winners included in the field – will have the opportunity to win the award for the first time.

Last year’s winner, New York Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge, who won when All-Star Week 2017 was held at Marlins Park in Miami, politely declined the chance to defend his crown.

Seven of this year’s participants are National League representatives; those players, included with their respective home run totals in descending order, are:

Milwaukee Brewers outfielder, Jesus Augilar – 24 home runs

Washington Nationals outfielder, Bryce Harper – 23 home runs

Los Angeles Dodgers infielder, Max Muncy – 22 home runs

Chicago Cubs outfielder/catcher, Kyle Schwarber – 20 home runs

Chicago Cubs second baseman, Javier Baez – 19 home runs

Atlanta Braves first baseman, Freddie Freeman – 16 home runs

Philadelphia Phillies outfielder/first baseman, Rhys Hoskins – 14 home runs

The lone American League representative is Houston Astros third baseman Alex Bregman, with 20 home runs this season.

Now that you know the field, here are the (updated for your reference) Home Run Derby rules:

 

Rules:

As listed above, eight players are seeded 1-8 based on home runs; Augilar (No. 1) currently sits sixth in MLB with 24, Harper (No. 2) sits seventh with 23, etc.

Each player has four minutes to hit as many home runs as possible.

If the second player in each head-to-head matchup surpasses the home run total of the first before four minutes are complete, they automatically advance.

Each player earns 30 more seconds for each home run MLB.com’s Statcast tracks over 440 feet.

 

Tiebreakers:

If necessary, each player would compete in a 60-second swing-off.

If each player remains tied after the initial 60-second swing-off, the next tiebreaker would be three-swing swing-offs until a player advances/wins the competition.

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