This year’s T-Mobile Home Run Derby will take place at Globe Life Field on Monday (8 p.m. ET, ESPN), and the first player to announce he will be participating in the annual tournament was Orioles shortstop Gunnar Henderson. Henderson, who trails only Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani for the most homers in MLB this season, made the announcement while mic’d up during Baltimore’s Sunday Night Baseball contest against the Rangers on June 30.
Seven star sluggers followed Henderson, and the field is now set for the Derby after Teoscar Hernández also announced his entrance to the event while mic’d up during Wednesday’s Dodgers-Phillies game.
Gunnar Henderson, Orioles Current HR
Longest HR of 2024: 430 feet, June 10 vs. Rays
Hardest-hit HR of 2024: 112.3 mph, April 29 vs. Yankees
Henderson belted 28 home runs in his 2023 AL Rookie of the Year campaign, and he’s nearly equaled that number in the first half of the ’24 season. He’ll follow teammate Adley Rutschman and make his Derby debut after Rutschman made his first Derby appearance in Seattle last year.
Longest HR of 2024: 446 feet, June 4 vs. Nationals
Hardest-hit HR of 2024: 115.3 mph, May 16 vs. Phillies
This marks the fifth Derby appearance for Alonso, who has participated in each year’s competition since 2019 — outside of 2020 when there were no All-Star Game festivities due to COVID-19. Alonso won in both 2019 and ‘21 and with a win this year, he would tie Ken Griffey Jr. for the most Derby titles since the competition began in 1985.
Hardest-hit HR of 2024: 106.8 mph, June 30 vs. Marlins
Though he’s never been a prolific home run hitter — his career high in a season is 20 — he definitely has pop. Four of his 11 homers this season have traveled 415 or more feet and nine of the 11 have been hit with an exit velocity of 101.9 mph or better. Bohm has been a doubles machine so far in 2024, but now he’ll attempt to up his game just for the fun of it.
Field View: Alec Bohm’s two-run home run
Current HR total: 15
Longest HR of 2024: 468 feet, May 21 vs. Tigers
Hardest-hit HR of 2024: 112.0 mph, July 7 vs. Rockies
A native of Colleyville, Texas, which is a short drive from Arlington, Witt will have a chance to make his Home Run Derby debut in his own backyard. After a breakout 2023 season that saw him produce the first 30/30 campaign in franchise history, Witt has been even better this year, earning his first All-Star nod as a result.
Although this will be Witt’s first go in the T-Mobile Home Run Derby, he won the High School HR Derby held at Nationals Park in 2018, the summer before he was drafted.
