Why the 2026 MLB Home Run Derby format is different from any other

The Home Run Derby is an institution as American as apple pie. It's only been around since 1985 — Pittsburgh's Dave Parker was the inaugural champion, with a grand total of six dingers — but it didn't take long for the idea of the biggest, baddest sluggers in the Majors trying to hit a baseball as far as they possibly could to capture the national imagination.

For as iconic as it's been, though, the Derby has also changed quite a bit over the years — and it's about to do so again in a major way for 2026, as MLB tests out a new format it hopes will bring out the best competition yet. The clock? That's a thing of the past. Here's everything to know about how the Derby will work on Monday night in Philadelphia, and just how different it is from years past.

This year's Home Run Derby format, explained

MLB gave the Derby a serious shot in the arm back in 2015, when it ditched the "outs" format — in which players tried to hit as many homers as possible before recording a given number of outs, i.e. anything that wasn't a homer — in lieu of a timer. The early returns were uniformly positive; no longer were fans forced to watch hitters take several pitches in a row waiting for the perfect one to drive. But, after a while, it all began to feel like too much. Balls were flying out of the yard so frantically that it became hard for fans to keep up, diluting the power of each individual dinger, while pitchers began to skirt the rules in order to try and go as quickly as possible.

So, for 2026, the league is making wholesale changes. There will still be eight hitters competing, but rather than a timer, each hitter will get a finite number of swings. The exact number depends on the round:

• First round: 20 swings
• Semifinals: 15 swings
• Final: 15 swings

Every swing a player takes, even a swing that results in a home run, will count against his total allotment. The one exception: If a player hits a homer on his final swing of the round, he can keep on swinging until he fails to hit one out.

All eight players will have 20 swings in the first round to hit as many dingers as possible. The four players with the highest totals will then advance to the semifinals, where they'll be seeded, No. 1 to No. 4, in order of how many homers they hit in the opening round. The No. 1 seed will face the No. 4 seed, while the No. 2 seed faces the No. 3 seed.

Let's run through a quick example. Say this is how the leaderboard looks after Round 1:

• Kyle Schwarber, 17
• Junior Caminero, 15
• Jac Caglianone, 15
• Bryce Harper, 14
• Ben Rice, 11
• Willson Contreras, 9
• Jordan Walker, 9
• Munetaka Murakami, 7

Schwarber, Caminero, Caglianone and Harper would advance to the semifinals, with Schwarber facing Harper in a Philly-on-Philly showdown and Caminero facing Caglianone. Each player would then get 15 swings to hit as many homers as they can, with the winner of each head-to-head matchup advancing to the final (where the two competitors left standing will also get 15 swings).

But what about ties? We're glad you asked. In the first round, ties will be broken via distance, with the player who hit the longest homer advancing. In the semifinals and finals, however, any ties will result in a swing-off in which each hitter gets three swings.

Why did MLB get rid of the Home Run Derby clock?

The introduction of the timed round back in 2015 revitalized the Derby, bringing a much-needed jolt of urgency to what had become a pretty sleepy affair. A hitter getting on a heater as time wound down became must-see TV, and the introduction of walk-off homers was as thrilling as it sounds.

So, why mess with a good thing? Part of it is simply that fans are fickle, and we eventually get bored of what we grow accustomed to. While a frantic homer barrage was great drama at first, we soon grew immune to it. It also became a bit of a logistical mess: Broadcasters and camera crews had an increasingly difficult time keeping all of the action straight given the frenetic pace, while social media started going to great lengths to determine whether pitchers were violating the rules by releasing the next ball before the previous one had landed.

In short, it felt as though the format had become more of a distraction than an asset. Only time will tell whether going to swings is the answer; it's not all that dissimilar from the old outs format, and that was so sluggish that it nearly drove the Derby to extinction. With a new crop of young stars on the rise, though, the league is hoping that watching guys like Schwarber and Caminero will be excitement enough.

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