The Home Run Derby might be the biggest adrenaline rush of MLB All-Star weekend every year, but that had the chance to be especially be true on Monday night in Atlanta's Truist Park with the eight sluggers taking to the field with one mission: Hit dingers. The field was loaded with MLB home run leader Cal Raleigh, young prodigiously powerful stars like James Wood, Oneil Cruz and Junior Caminero, the hometown guy Matt Olson (who replaced Ronald Acuña Jr.), and even some dark horses like Brent Rooker, Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Byron Buxton
With such a fun field for the Home Run Derby, fans knew they would be in for a treat. Obviously, they were looking for drama and a good competition, and that was certainly delivered. However, there was also the thrill of watching guys like Cruz hit absolute nukes — and he undoubtedly gave the fans a show, even if he didn't make it to the finals of the competition.
But who won the Home Run Derby? Who hit the longest home run? How did the bracket shake out? We have everything you need to know from Atlanta and the 2025 HR Derby.
Who won the 2025 Home Run Derby?
The Big Dumper is your 2025 Home Run Derby winner, which is of course Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh. He entered the contest as the favorite, which made sense considering he had 38 home runs entering the break, one of the biggest totals at the midway point in MLB history. Meanwhile, no one else had even 25 home runs on the season who was in the field.
With the victory, Raleigh set two historical milestones. He's now the first catcher to ever win the Home Run Derby and also the first switch-hitter to win the contest as well. The history just keeps on coming for the Mariners superstar.
Updated 2025 MLB Home Run Derby bracket
A change from some recent years in the Home Run Derby, there was not an initial bracket for the first round, merely with the four highest totals from the first round moving through, then setting the bracket based on the totals (and distance of the farthest HR as the tiebreaker). The totals in the first round were, in order, Oneil Cruz (21), Junior Caminero (21), Byron Buxton (20), Cal Raleigh (17), Brent Rooker (17), James Wood (16), Matt Olson (15), and Jazz Chisholm Jr. (3). Raleigh advanced by 0.08 feet in the tiebreaker over Rooker, while Cruz bested Caminero with his 513-foot dinger.
Here's how the bracket sorted out, with previous rounds' home run total in parentheses.
Home Run Derby Semifinals
- 1 Oneil Cruz (21) vs. 4 Cal Raleigh (17) — Raleigh Advances, 19-13
- 2 Junior Caminero (21) vs. 3 Byron Buxton (20) — Caminero Advances, 8-7
Caminero dominated Buxton. The latter went first as the lower seed, but failed to get any momentum going in his round. Caminero was the complete opposite, surpassing Buxton in the first minute of the two allotted to participants in the second round. Raleigh then set the pace in the second matchup of the semis, blasting 19 longballs on his turn. Cruz followed with a few more of the longest home runs of the night, but couldn't match Raleigh's total.
Home Run Finals
- 4 Cal Raleigh (17, 19) vs. 2 Junior Caminero (21, 8) — Raleigh wins, 18-15
Raleigh came out and set the tone with a big showing in the finals. Caminero came close to answering, but just didn't have enough firepower left in the bonus swings to surpass the Big Dumper.
Home Run Derby leaderboard: Most HRs in a single round, farthest HR
Most Home Runs in a Single Round
Leaderboard | Home Runs | Round |
|---|---|---|
1. Oneil Cruz | 21 | First Round |
1. Junior Caminero | 21 | First Round |
3. Byron Buxton | 20 | First Round |
4. Cal Raleigh | 19 | Semifinals |
5. Cal Raleigh | 18 | Finals |
To start the Home Run Derby, each subsequent participant put up a higher HR total in the round than the previous player. Wood started with 16, only for Rooker to best him by one at 17, and then Caminero took a commanding early lead with 21. Oneil Cruz then took control of it, even if he didn't completely follow the trend. He tied Caminero's top mark with 21 home runs, but did so while hitting the farthest home run of the night at the time, 513 feet.
Buxton didn't quite catch Caminero and Cruz, but he did come close with a monster bonus round. There was nothing monster about Chisholm's showing, however. He put up one of the worst derby performances in recent memory, hitting only three homers between the allotted time and the bonus time.
Raleigh then created some drama. He tied fourth place, Brent Rooker, with 17 in the first round. However, both of their farthest home runs (the tiebreaker in the first round) went 471 feet, meaning we would have to go to a decimal point... if Matt Olson didn't beat them both. The Braves representative did not, however, ultimately coming up short. That went to the decimal point with Raleigh advancing with a 470.61-foot homer over Rooker's 470.53-foot dinger.
Raleigh then put on a show in the semis and the finals, actually besting his first round mark with fewer swings and less time on the clock.
Longest Home Runs
Leaderboard | Distance | Round |
|---|---|---|
1. Oneil Cruz | 513 feet | First Round |
2. Oneil Cruz | 498 feet | Semifinals |
3. Oneil Cruz | 492 feet | Semifinals |
4. Oneil Cruz | 488 feet | First Round |
5. Oneil Cruz | 487 feet | First Round |
Cruz put on an unbelievable power display at the Home Run Derby, hitting the five farthest home runs of the night between the first round and the semifinals. The master stroke was the 513-footer in teh first round, but to hit four more that went 487 feet or farther is also just plain ridiculous.
For those keeping track at home, the farthest home run by someone who isn't Oneil Cruz came from James Wood in the first round, who hit one 486 feet.
Live updates and scores from every Home Run Derby matchup and round
Updates will be in reverse chronological order, with the most recent at the top.
Cal Raleigh vs. Junior Caminero - finals
- Cal Raleigh Total: 18 (Farthest: 464 feet)
- Junior Caminero Total: 15 (Farthest: 469 feet)
Watching Raleigh swing in the championship round, you have to wonder how many he could've hit in total if he didn't try to go from the right side for half of his first round. He hit seven homers in the first 56 seconds before taking the timeout. That rest did him good as he started teeing off with three straight over the fence. But he then slowed down, which caused him to take a breath and then got him taking off. He once again entered the bonus time with a flurry that got him to 15 home runs. He was particular with some clear fatigue showing, but managed to add three more to his total to set the bar at 18.
Caminero started 2-for-2 in terms of swings and home runs, but things started to look quite interesting as he slowed down a bit after the first 30ish seconds. He ultimately took his timeout with seven to his credit, but with 1:11 and 15 pitches still remaining on the clock. He kept about the same pace, though, which might've been to his disadvantage, entering the bonus with 14 deep shots. He earned his extra bonus out after recording one with a 463-foot blast, but still needed three more to just tie Raleigh when he recorded his second out. Then, down to his final out, he was waiting for the right pitch, but didn't get it.
Cal Raleigh vs. Oneil Cruz — semifinals
- Cal Raleigh Total: 19 (Farthest: 465 feet)
- Oneil Cruz Total: 13 (Farthest: 493 feet)
Whatever was keeping Cal Raleigh a bit muted in the first round, it was nowhere to be found to start the semifinals. He stayed with the lefty swing in the box and he started completely mashing right away. It was five home runs in his first six swings and eight in 55 seconds before the timeout came. That really didn't stop after the timeout either, as he continued to tattoo baseballs, getting to 16 home runs before the bonus outs. He kept adding to that total, delivering one of the highest totals of the night, 19, with fewer pitches and in less time than in the first round.
Cruz continued to display his ridiculous power, but his pace was all off — not just in hitting homers but also getting pitches much slower than would be advised. That put him in a poor spot going into his timeout with only five home runs, even though one of them went a ridiculous 492 feet, and saw him enter his bonus round in the semis with 10, meaning he needed nine to tie and 10 to advance past Raleigh and only four outs to work with. Despite torturing some baseballs, including one that was nearly 500 feet, Cruz came up short, finishing with 13 and allowing Raleigh to advance.
Byron Buxton vs. Junior Caminero — semifinals
- Byron Buxton Total: 7 (Farthest: 456 feet)
- Junior Caminero Total: 8 (Farthest: 460 feet)
We saw Buxton have a bit of a slow start in the first round but, with only two minutes and 27 pitches for the second round, that made things look even more dire for the Twins star. He hit only two homers in the first minute and then called for his timeout. He did come out of that a bit better, but still only got to six home runs in the time before the bonus, when he dominated in his first round. He only hit one this time around, however, which seemingly set Caminero up to continue his dominance from the first round.
As everyone expected, Caminero came out just crushing baseballs. He wasn't tired from the first round and, before he even got to the midway point of his two minutes, he had already passed Buxton, choosing to pick it up and take his bat to the finals rather than keep swinging in the semis.
Matt Olson, first round
- First Round Total: 15
- Longest Home Run: 460 feet
In front of the home fans in Atlanta, Olson may have felt the pressure or just had some early trouble. He didn't hit one out in his first 10 swings, but then started to catch some fire, hitting four bombs in his next six swings to get to four before he took. timeout, but still needing to stay hot out of that brief respite. And get hot he did — Olson found his swing, especially late, hitting 11 in the final 1:39 of his time to get to 15 before the bonus round. Unfortunately, the steam had run out at that point, failing to hit a bonus homer and finishing with 15.
Cal Raleigh, first round
- First Round Total: 17
- Longest Home Run: 471 feet
It was a bit of an uneven performance from MLB's home run leader going into the break. Raleigh started out on a nice pace, not doing anything too crazy but hitting them over the fence consistently, sitting at eight homers when he took his timeout right at the halfway mark. He then came out after that, switching from lefty to righty in the middle of the round, and had a bit of trouble finding the groove. But he went on a late run before time expired to get to 15 before the time expired. He added two more, but failed to get the extra out, and ended with 17, tied with Brent Rooker and setting up a distance tiebreaker.
Jazz Chisholm Jr., first round
- First Round Total: 3
- Longest Home Run: 453 feet
There's really no way to sugarcoat this, but the detractors who suggested that Jazz Chisholm Jr. didn't belong in the HR Derby were all but validated. He simply didn't have the goods when it came to his round, hitting just one longball before he called his timeout. Even after a pep talk at the plate from Aaron Judge and Max Fried, his Yankees teammates couldn't help as he finished the initial three minutes with only three home runs — good for one per minute. To add salt to the wound, he didn't add a single one in the bonus time either.
Byron Buxton, first round
- First Round Total: 466 feet
- Longest Home Run: 20
The early part of Buxton's round was really, truly a game of runs. After not hitting his first four pitches out, he then socked three in a row. Then he went on another lull where he only hit one in six swings before hitting three in a row again — but that was followed by three swings getting blanked again. As a bit of fatigue appeared to set in, he then took his timeout. Out of the break, he again had a hard time finding the right rhythm, and while he had a couple of flurries once again, that and a relatively slow pace — he still had five pitches left when time ran out — left him with only 14 homers going into the bonus round. But with no pace mattering, Buxton found what he was looking for, hitting six homers in the bonus, pushing him to third place in the first round standings at the time.
Oneil Cruz, first round
- First Round Total: 21
- Longest Home Run: 513 feet
As every baseball fan expected, Oneil Cruz was absolutely murdering baseballs in his first round of the Home Run Derby, hitting one 500+ feet and three more over 480 feet. However, early on, the impressive distance wasn't matching the total as he looked in early danger of not advancing. As he neared the end of his time, however, Cruz found the blend of ridiculous power and production in this event, ending his three minutes with 18 home runs. With his bonus swings, he continued to make some impressive cuts, adding three more to his total and ultimately tying Caminero for the top mark through the first half of the first round.
Junior Caminero, first round
- First Round Total: 21
- Longest Home Run: 475 feet
For a second, Caminero looked like he might be in a bit of trouble after seeing quite a lot of swings go for naught. But after the first 30 seconds or so of his round, he found his swing for the derby and started going off in this contest, hitting seven home runs and getting to 11 with 1:20 remaining before calling his timeout. He didn't finish quite as strong, but it was still enough to get him to 18 home runs before the bonus swings, which already gave him the first round lead.
Brent Rooker, first round
- First Round Total: 17
- Longest Home Run: 471 feet
Rooker came out of the gate absolute scorching hot, ripping balls to left field early on and seemingly looking to set a massive tone early in the Home Run Derby. Before he finally took his timeout a little more than 1.5 minutes into his time, Rooker then came out and both he and his pitcher seemed a bit fatigued and the pace slowed down, sending him into the bonus swings with 14 home runs. That's when he got he selective, though, and started to come back alive, slugging three longballs to push ahead of Wood early on.
James Wood, first round
- First Round Total: 16
- Longest Home Run: 486 feet
Wood got off to a bit of a slow start in his Home Run Derby debut, hitting only five home runs in the first half of his three minutes, which then led to him taking a timeout. Out of the timeout, he seemed to find a bit more of a rhythm, starting to absolutely tattoo baseballs all over Truist Park. That groove that he got into ultimately pushed him to 14 home runs in the first three minutes going into his bonus time with three outs to spare. He didn't make the most of that, hitting only two in his bonus swings, pushing his total to 16 for the round.