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Major League Baseball’s All Star celebration technically got underway yesterday even though they basically buried the Futures Game from existence by playing it concurrent with actual MLB games – Alfredo Duno started, caught 4.0 IP, and hit a 400 foot fly ball to CF that was caught.

Tonight, though, comes the Home Run Derby, and MLB isn’t about to take that lightly in the marketing department. In fact, they’ve gone out of their way to hype the revamped format, and this edition will be carried by Netflix and Netflix only.

The event gets underway at 8 PM ET. It’ll feature Red Sox slugger Willson Contreras, Jordan Walker of St. Louis, Jac Caglianone from Kansas City, Munetaka Murakami of the Pale Hose, Yankees slugger Ben Rice, Tampa’s Junior Caminero, and a pair of Philadelphia homers in Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper (the event and All Star Game are in Philadelphia, if you weren’t aware).

A fun twist this year is that there’s no longer a timed clock against which the sluggers must face – this time, they’ll get a finite number of swings and the most dingers launched on those swings takes the cake. Longest homer will be the tiebreaker should there be a tie in Round 1, while a three-swing swing-off will break any ties in subsequent rounds.

We’ll see if it makes the event more watchable!

The 2026 Home Run Derby will take place tonight in Philadelphia. It starts at 7pm US Central time and will be shown on Netflix. For an explainer of everything you need to know about the Derby, you can read Kris Willis at the mothership here.

A few key things to note:

1. Jac Caglianone is participating. The large man can whack the ball really hard, so I’m hoping he can unleash his full power tonight. Would be super fun to see batting practice balls go out ball after ball after ball. He’s hit 15 home runs so far this season has a .201 ISO for power. He went on a huge hot streak in June and is capable of beating anyone in the field.
2. The format is changing – the timer is gone. It will be swing-based, with 20 swings allotted in round 1, 15 in round 2, and 15 in round 3. I guess the hope is that players’s stamina will be pressured less.
   • The top 4 guys in round 1 will advance to round 2. Then we’ll get two winners from round 2 to advance to the finals.

The derby when Bobby Witt Jr participated was, for me, an exercise in joy. He looked like he was having the absolute time of his life and I was beaming while watching him. It helped that it was a very close finish. I hope Cags can replicate the joy and give us a little beacon of light in this dark season.

I’m not sure how much traction this will actually get, since it’s being shown on Netflix this year. We canceled our Netflix subscription in January last year, after they announced another price hike, and really haven’t particularly missed it since then. So we will not be watching the Derby this year. But some of you might, and if so, please feel free to use the thread to discuss it. There are some interesting changes to the format this year, so below find discussion of that, the contenders, and so forth.

How to watch

• Date: Monday, July 13
• Place: Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia
• Time: 5 p.m. Arizona time (the pre-derby coverage begins an hour earliers)
• Watch: Netflix. That’s it. No other (legal) option.

Fun fact, the last time there was a HR Derby in Philadelphia was back in 1999. The finalists that year ended up being Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire. Bonds took the title after homering on his three final swings. He did not have to pee into a cup afterward.

The participants

• Jac Caglianone, Kansas City Royals
• Junior Caminero, Tampa Bay Rays
• Willson Contreras, Boston Red Sox
• Bryce Harper, Philadelphia Phillies
• Munetaka Murakami, Chicago White Sox
• Ben Rice, New York Yankees
• Kyle Schwarber, Philadelphia Phillies
• Jordan Walker, St. Louis Cardinals

While Schwarber is the MLB home-run leader, with 31, there are a few players here who haven’t exactly stood out in the first half. Eighteen players have hit more than twenty home-runs this year. Half the field – Harper, Contreras, Murakami and something called a Caglianone – are not among them. The last-name is ranked equal 49th in homers so far. Also, if you want to cheer on the NL, but do not wish to do so for the Phillies (who inexplicably have two representatives – where was this benevolence in 2011?), you get Jordan Walker. He is the only other representative from the Senior Circuit.

The format

Things have been switched up this year. Most notably? Gone is the clock – it’s back to swings. Here’s what happens.

• Round 1. All eight players compete. The four hitting the most home-runs move on to the semi-finals.
• Semi-finals. #1 will face #4, and #2 will face #3, head-to-head.
• Final. The winner of the semi-finals will meet for the title.
• 20 swings in Round 1, 15 swings thereafter.
• If you homer on your final swing, you can keep going until you do not.
• Tiebreakers: Longest homer distance (Round 1); a swing-off of three swings (semis and final)

The odds

Home Run Derby Champion

• Kyle Schwarber             +325
• Junior Caminero            +400
• Munetaka Murakami     +550
• Ben Rice                       +600
• Bryce Harper                +700
• Jordan Walker               +700
• Jac Caglianone              +750
• Willson Contreras         +1600

Most consecutive HRs by any player to start Round 1

• Over/Under      5 homers

Longest HR streak by any player after 20th swing of Round 1

• Over/Under      4 homers

Total home runs hit

• Over/Under      118.5 homers

Distance of longest HR hit

• Over/Under      484.5 feet

Most HRs by any player in Round 1

• Over/Under      13.5 homers

Round 1 Home Run Totals

• Ben Rice                       o/u 9.5
• Bryce Harper                o/u 8.5
• Jac Caglianone              o/u 9.5
• Jordan Walter               o/u 9.5
• Junior Caminero            o/u 9.5
• Kyle Schwarber             o/u 10.5
• Munetaka Murakami     o/u 9.5
• Willson Contreras         o/u 8.5

Feel free to place your wagers in SnakePit dollars in the comments!

The MLB Home Run Derby lineup is set and the St. Louis Cardinals finally have a representative again. Jordan Walker will be competing with 7 others in the competition that will be streaming live on Netflix starting at 6pm central time. Here’s the lineup:

Kyle Schwarber (Phillies)
Ben Rice (Yankees)
Junior Caminero (Rays)
Jordan Walker (Cardinals)
Willson Contreras (Red Sox)
Bryce Harper (Phillies)
Munetaka Murakami (White Sox)
Jac Caglianone (Royals)

According to MLB.com, here are the rules for this year’s competition:

It is no longer time based

Each competitor gets 20 swings in the 1st round, 15 in the 2nd round and 15 in the 3rd round

Every swing counts no matter if it’s a home run or not

If a player hits a home run on his final swing, he can continue until he fails to hit a home run

Top 4 home run totals in the 1st round advance to semi-finals where competitors will be ranked based on 1st round totals

Ties in the 1st round will be decided by home run distance – Ties in semi-finals and finals decided by 3-swing swing-off

Congratulations to the two-time West Coast Conference Player of the Year, redshirt senior third baseman Mikey Bell, who was picked by the San Francisco Giants with the No. 568 pick in the 19th round of the 2026 MLB Draft.

The former Gonzaga Bulldog previously announced that he’s transferring to the Georgia Bulldogs in the SEC. As long as he doesn’t sign the contract with San Francisco, Bell can play his final season of college eligibility.

Bell to the Bay Area! 🛎️

Congrats to Mikey Bell for getting picked by the Giants in today’s draft! The Zags have now had a player selected in every full MLB draft since 1999 #GDTBAZpic.twitter.com/RX4JmTUCWK

— Gonzaga Baseball (@ZagBaseball) July 12, 2026

The 6-2, 200-pound slugger hit .369 with 24 doubles, 20 home runs, 92 runs batted in, and 51 walks during his time in Spokane, Washington. Bell finished with a .448 on-base percentage, .610 slugging percentage, and 1.057 on-base plus slugging percentage across 107 games.

The Fresno, California, native started his college career on the junior college level at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo, California. The Slipper Still Fits spoke with the 22-year-old before the start of the 2026 season, and what a treat it was.

Arden Cravalho is a Gonzaga University graduate from the Bay Area… Follow him on X @a_cravalho

If the Dodgers picked up Tarik Skubal, would that be overkill?

Logan Webb, the longtime ace of the San Francisco Giants, laughed.

“I don’t think they need him,” Webb said, “but you never count those guys out on getting anybody in the league.”

The Dodgers could make a mockery of the National League West by trading for Skubal, who won the last two American League Cy Young awards for the Detroit Tigers.

Then again, you could argue the Dodgers already are making a mockery of the NL West. They lead the division by 11½ games, more than double the lead in any other division.

Read more:How Dodgers' Justin Wrobleski went from demotion to All-Star in less than two years

So, on the day before the All-Star Game, I posed the overkill question to stars from the other teams in the NL West.

“Would I consider it overkill? It’s a crazy game,” said outfielder Corbin Carroll of the Arizona Diamondbacks, the team that swept the Dodgers over the weekend at Dodger Stadium.

“I don’t think, going into the weekend, that too many people would have expected that. The nature of this game is about you can never be good enough, and you always have to look to keep improving. I think I would just view it in that same light.”

The Dodgers are not about winning the NL West this season. From owner Mark Walter to president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, from manager Dave Roberts to franchise icon Shohei Ohtani, the Dodgers last fall loudly and proudly declared their intent to three-peat and become the first NL team ever to win three consecutive World Series championships.

Their postseason rotation could be so overloaded that All-Star Justin Wrobleski, whose 2.69 ERA compares favorably to NL All-Star starter Cristopher Sanchez (2.62), could find himself in the bullpen behind starters Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Ohtani, Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow.

On the other hand, Ohtani missed his last start for treatment of a troublesome left knee, and neither Snell nor Glasnow has pitched since May. The Dodgers might not be entirely sure of projecting their October health and effectiveness by the Aug. 3 trade deadline, and the chance to three-peat might never come again.

The Dodgers have the prospects and the money to acquire Skubal, should the Tigers trade him. The Dodgers may or may not have the need, but they surely have the motivation.

“I wouldn’t blame them,” Colorado Rockies catcher Hunter Goodman said. “They’re trying to win another World Series.”

Said San Diego Padres closer Mason Miller: “He’d help any team he went to. They’ve got a strong rotation, a lot of guys that are going to get healthy and help them out, but I don’t necessarily consider it overkill. Anybody, on any given night.”

If the Dodgers acquired Skubal, the fans of those rival NL West teams would explode in frustration, perhaps even in rage, at the back-to-back champions. Ohtani for $700 million, Kyle Tucker for $60 million per year, and now the rich kids would get Skubal, too?

The owners are trying to channel that level of fan frustration and anger in their push for a salary cap. They say they’re trying to help teams like, say, the Rockies and Pittsburgh Pirates compete more effectively against the Dodgers.

The Pirates have not posted a winning record in eight years and have not appeared in the playoffs for 11 years. Surely a salary cap would help them, right?

“I don’t think there’s any need for a salary cap,” Pirates ace Paul Skenes said. “I don’t know if there’s a perfect answer, but I do know the salary cap would not be a fix-all for parity.”

Read more:Shaikin: Inside the Shohei Ohtani Economy driving a wild auction for his worn cleats

Parity is in the eye of the beholder, or more accurately in the definition of the beholder. The owners like to note that no small-market team has won the World Series since the Kansas City Royals in 2015.

However, in a league that owners insist demands immediate reform, 23 of the 30 teams are within four games of a playoff spot.

As one of eight players on the executive committee of the players’ union, Skenes is involved in the current collective bargaining negotiations. Salary cap or not, would it be overkill if the Dodgers picked up Skubal?

“They’re trying to win, aren’t they?” Skenes said. “You can’t ever blame a team for going out and doing everything possible to win.”

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

PHILADELPHIA - Luis Arraez is fully prepared to get dealt by the time the Aug. 3 trade deadline comes around. But he'd also like potential suitors to know any deal involving him comes with an expectation: He's now a second baseman, and doesn't expect that to change after joining a new team.

Arraez, the three-time batting champion who's been the lone bright spot on a 41-55 San Francisco Giants team, has remade himself into a Gold Glove-caliber second baseman under the tutelage of infield guru Ron Washington, enhancing his value significantly as he once again tests the free agent market this winter.

He's once again elite with the bat, hitting .330, but now he's no longer dinged for being a first baseman or designated hitter with little power. And Arraez would prefer to maintain his rediscovered identity at second.

"It's going to be second base," Arraez said when asked about potential destinations and scenarios. "I don’t like to go back to first base. I prepared my mind, I prepared my body only to play second base."

It's easy to see why, and perhaps acquiring teams will understand it as well. Arraez has already accrued 3.0 WAR in this slightly more than half season, more than his prevous two seasons, when he banged out 381 hits for Miami and San Diego yet amassed just 2.6 WAR.

Why? Most of that damage came as he played himself off second and was relegated to first or DH. He was traded from Miami to San Diego in 2024, and the Padres reached the playoffs both seasons.

He and the Giants had high hopes for a similar outcome in 2025, but the first year under manager Tony Vitello has gone awry in several fashions. The Giants finished the symbolic first half winning three of four against Colorado, but it would take a July miracle for them to avoid being sellers come trade deadline time.

"This past week, we’ve played good baseball as an organization. But I just need to stay focused and I don’t want to think about a trade," says Arraez. "It’s tough, especially mentally. When you feel like a family and you’ve got Willy (Adames), Raffy (Devers), Heliot (Ramos), Logan (Webb) – those guys seem like family. They open the door for me.

"It’s hard to leave, you know? But it’s a business."

As he and his new team may soon find out next month.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: MLB trade target Luis Arraez makes surprise demand at All-Star Game

The 2026 MLB Home Run Derby will take place on Monday night, with eight players set to compete for the title. There will be a new champion this year, as Seattle catcher Cal Raleigh, who has had a disappointing, injury-riddled season, will not defend his title. Among this year’s participants, the only former winner is the Phillies’ Bryce Harper, who won while with the Nationals at his home park in 2018.

The derby takes place at 7 p.m. CT on Netflix, with the order of players and format listed below.

Batting Order

1. Willson Contreras, Red Sox (20 HRs) — Pitched to by Red Sox interim bench coach José David Flores
2. Jordan Walker, Cardinals (22 HRs) — Pitched to by Cardinals bullpen catcher Kleininger Teran
3. Jac Caglianone, Royals (15 HRs) — Pitched to by dad, Jeff Caglianone
4. Munetaka Murakami, White Sox (20 HRs) — Pitched to by White Sox coach Luis Sierra
5. Ben Rice, Yankees (29 HRs) — Pitched to by dad, Dan Rice
6. Junior Caminero, Rays (28 HRs) — Pitched to by Rays major league field coordinator Tomas Francisco
7. Kyle Schwarber, Phillies (32 HRs) — Pitched to by Phillies assistant hitting coach Rafael Pena
8. Bryce Harper, Phillies (20 HRs) — Pitched to by Dodgers third base coach Dino Ebel

8 players. 3 rounds. 1 Liberty Bell chain.

The @TMobile#HRDerby is TONIGHT! 💥

Watch live on Netflix at 8 pm ET with special coverage beginning at 7 pm ET pic.twitter.com/GcfLzqMcZH

— MLB (@MLB) July 13, 2026

Format

Since 2015, the Derby has been constrained by a timed clock. That has been eliminated in 2026.

Instead of trying to hit as many homers as possible during timed rounds, each of the eight Derby participants will start each round with a finite number of swings: 20 in Round 1, 15 in Round 2, and 15 again in the final round.

All swings count against a player’s swing allotment, whether it results in a homer or not. However, a player who homers on his final swing of a round can keep swinging until he doesn’t hit one out.

The players with the top four home run totals from the first round will advance to the semifinals, where they’ll be seeded based on their first-round homer totals. They will face off head-to-head (No. 1 vs. No. 4 and No. 2 vs. No. 3) to determine the two finalists.

Any ties in the first round will be broken by home run distance, with the player who hit the longest homer among the tied participants advancing. In the semifinals and finals, ties will be broken by three-swing swing-offs until a winner is determined.

Happy mashing!

As the lone player representing the Mets at the All-Star break this year, Juan Soto had no competition when it came to media availability and answered a myriad of questions ranging from who he’s most looking forward to seeing over the course of the event to why New York struggled so mightily during the first half of the season despite such high expectations.

To be clear, the Mets’ tumultuous season to date has nothing to do with Soto’s production as he has been the team’s MVP and was deservedly named an All-Star for the first time as a Met despite missing time early in the season with a calf injury.

An All-Star once again after missing out last season, Soto is excited to be back alongside the game’s best and to see players and even old teammates that he can talk to simply as friends as well as to pick their brains to get better himself.

“It feels great to be a part of another All-Star [team],” he said. “It’s always great to see so many good players, so many guys that have been putting in the work to be who they are right now. It’s really cool to see.”

With the spectacle taking place in Philadelphia at Citizens Bank Park, Soto is getting a chance to rekindle his relationship with former teammates with the Washington Nationals in Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber, now current Phillies.

The outfielder had nothing but good things to say about each of them, even if they are rivals of the Mets.

“I haven’t shared a locker room with [Harper] in a long time and Schwarber, all those guys,” Soto said. “I feel like we have such a great talent in that clubhouse, like you would love to be around them. I’m gonna try to pick their minds and see where they’re at.”

With Harper and Schwarber both participating in Monday’s Home Run Derby as the hometown heroes, Soto stopped short of picking either of them to win it and instead went with last year’s runner-up and fellow Dominican Junior Caminero.

As for who Soto is most looking forward to speaking with over the next couple of days, that’s Yordan Alvarez who is representing the Houston Astros in the opponent’s dugout.

“I will find him,” Soto said.

Despite the levity and distraction of the event this week, the issue of the Mets’ disappointing first half came up and Soto discussed what’s gone wrong in New York this summer while also defending his teammates regardless of the team’s record and the standings.

“I’ve been trying my best to win games, to help my team,” he said. “It’s definitely not easy, I know how hard my team is working and I appreciate that they come in day in and day out. They never stop, they keep grinding, they try to find a way every day so nothing else I can ask for.

“I’ve been doing my best and we haven’t gotten to the spot that we want to be so it feels like a little bit of failure so I gotta keep going, I gotta keep getting better and I gotta try harder.”

After limping into the All-Star break following getting swept by the Boston Red Sox at Citi Field, the Mets at least will have some time to clear their heads before getting back on the field in the second half in an attempt to finish strong.

Soto thinks the time off will do everybody some good.

“I feel like everybody needs a couple days off after a tough stretch,” he said. “To get the days off and kinda like start over I think is gonna be good for the guys.”

The biggest bright spots for New York has been the breakout of rookies Carson Benge and A.J. Ewing who have played alongside Soto in the outfield for the majority of the season. Benge, of course, broke camp with the team as the starting right fielder while Ewing was called up in early May to inject some energy into the team and they both have played extremely well.

Not only is their development a reason for the fans to keep watching, it’s been fun for Soto, still only 27 years old, to play with them and watch them continue to get better. And even though Soto has years of experience, he still is and feels young at heart.

“For me I’ve just been having fun,” Soto said. “I always call myself the forever rookie. I always try to handle myself the right way, but definitely enjoy the moment, don’t try to be hard on anybody.

“That’s one of the things that I take every time, the transition, guys looking over and looking for advice or anything. I’m always gonna be there for them, but at the end of the day I always feel like one of them, I always try to have fun.”

With the emergence of the two rookie outfielders giving the Mets an outfield that appears to be one they can trust for the long term, as well as a staff filled with rookie starting pitchers that have shown elite stuff, there’s reason to believe the team can quickly turn things around, if not this season than seasons to come.

In fact, Soto had a message to the fans who have endured a lot during this disappointing season.

“Keep believing. We’re gonna turn things around,” he said. “We have a lot of talent, we have a lot of players that can be elite so don’t give up on them, we’re gonna turn this back [around].”

Editor's note: Follow the 2026 Home Run Derby live

Eight players are set to face off in the 2026 MLB Home Run Derby at 8 p.m. ET on July 13 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.

Two Phillies players will participate: Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper. The other six are Jac Caglianone of the Kansas City Royals, Junior Caminero of the Tampa Bay Rays, Willson Contreras of the Boston Red Sox, Ben Rice of the New York Yankees, Jordan Walker of the St. Louis Cardinals and Munetaka Murakami of the Chicago White Sox.

Unsurprisingly, that list includes some of baseball’s best home run hitters this season. Schwarber leads MLB with 32 homers, while Rice is third with 29 and Caminero is tied for fourth with 28. Four of the remaining five have gone long at least 20 times.

Track all the regular-season home runs belted so far in 2026 by the eight players below. This graphic has their homers laid over Citizens Bank Park, providing a glimpse of how they might fare in the Derby itself:

If you can't see the graphic above, click here to view.

DIG DEEPER: Watch every home run at Citizens Bank Park in 2026

Citizens Bank Park has seen 121 home runs across 46 Phillies home games in 2026. Statcast rates the park as the fifth friendliest for home runs in MLB by its home run park factor calculation.

Among this year’s participants, Harper won the Home Run Derby in 2018 as a member of the Washington Nationals. Caminero finished runner-up last year to Cal Raleigh of the Seattle Mariners, while Schwarber participated in the 2022 Derby, but lost to Albert Pujols in the first round.

This year’s Home Run Derby will consist of a three-round format. In the first round, players will have 20 swings to hit as many home runs as they can. The top four will advance to a head-to-head second round, and the two winners from that round will face off in the final. The semifinals and finals will have 15 swings, and players who homer on their final swing can continue until they don’t hit a homer.

Methodology note: Home run data from Baseball Savant. Home run locations are plotted over Citizens Bank Park using available Statcast hit-location data; homers without hit-location data are approximated using available distance data.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Dinger or no dinger? How Derby sluggers' home runs stack up in Philly