Home Run Derby 2025: 6 participants we want to see this year

Photo by Jason Mowry/Getty Images

From Cal Raleigh to Ronald Acuña Jr., here are the guys we want to see hit some dingers at the All-Star Break.

The Midsummer Classic is around the corner and voting for the MLB All-Star Game is heating up. The first phase of voting concludes this week when the field of players will be narrowed ahead of the final phase, where the starters for the ALl-Star Game will be selected.

However, the All-Star Game is not the only big event of the Midsummer Classic, as the Home Run Derby always draws a crowd. While those participants are yet to be named, here are six players we want to see in this year’s Derby.

Cal Raleigh, C, Seattle Mariners

Based on nicknames alone, Cal Raleigh should be in both the All-Star Game and the Home Run Derby. It is hard to top “Big Dumper,” after all.

But Raleigh brings so much more to the table than a fantastic nickname, as he is off to one of the best offensive seasons for catchers, and switch-hitters, in recent memory. As the Seattle Mariners enter play on Tuesday Raleigh has 32 home runs, putting him on pace for the most home runs from a catcher in MLB history. Those 32 home runs also have him on track to eclipse the most home runs in a season from a switch-hitter, surpassing the 54 that Mickey Mantle belted during the historic 1961 season.

Get this man in the Home Run Derby.

Elly De La Cruz, SS, Cincinnati Reds

Elly De La Cruz made his All-Star Game debut last season, but demurred when asked about the Home Run Derby. He had been invited to participate for the second consecutive season, but declined. “It’s not my time to do it yet,” said De La Cruz last summer. “It’s too many swings, and I want to rest on those days.”

This year might be his time.

De La Cruz has belted 18 home runs this year and some of those — like this majestic shot into the waterfall in Kansas City — would electrify the crowd at Truist Park next month:

The dynamic shortstop might want to demure again this year, but we’d love to see him in the Derby this summer.

Oneil Cruz, SS/CF, Pittsburgh Pirates

The allure of the Home Run Derby is watching MLB players hit absolute nukes.

This means we need to see Oneil Cruz in the Home Run Derby this season.

The Pirates superstar leads all qualified players with an exit velocity of 96.5 mph this season, and some of his 13 home runs have seemed supersonic. Take this rocket against the Milwaukee Brewers:

The 122.9-mph exit velocity is the hardest-hit ball in the Statcast Era. For reference, the fastest speed recorded in the history of the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix, set by Lewis Hamilton in 2021, clocked in at just over 102 mph.

Home runs traveling faster than F1 cars in the Home Run Derby? Sign us up.

Yes, perhaps Monaco is not the best reference point, but work with us here …

Junior Caminero, 3B, Tampa Bay Rays

While Oneil Cruz has the fastest average bat speed in the MLB this year (at 78.5 mph), Tampa Bay Rays infielder Junior Caminero leads the league in Fast Swing Rate, with 77% of his swings clocking in at more than 75 mph this season.

Caminero has used that incredible swing to bash 19 home runs entering play on Tuesday.

He’ll celebrate his 22nd birthday in the days before the 2025 All-Star Game, and he has already said he would love to participate in the Home Run Derby. “If I get selected, and they give me the opportunity, yes,” Caminero said in a spot on Foul Territory earlier this month. “I’m not going to say that I’m going to win, but I’m going to put on a great show for the fans, and it’s going to be entertaining.”

The fans love a great show, and Caminero in the Derby would be absolutely that.

James Wood, OF, Washington Nationals

James Wood has flourished this year, his second full season in the majors. Entering play on Tuesday the Washington Nationals outfielder has sent 22 home runs into the bleachers, including some blasts like this no-doubter against the Los Angeles Dodgers:

The 22-year-old outfielder has belted 13 “no-doubters” according to Statcast, home runs that would have been out of all 30 MLB parks.

Wood sounds like he would be in if the invitation came.

“I mean, it’s been brought up,” Wood told reporters this week. “But I mean, I don’t know. We’ll see. That’d be cool if I’m invited. So let’s try to get that first.”

That invitation should come his way.

Ronald Acuña Jr., OF, Atlanta Braves

There are a few reasons we want to see Ronald Acuña Jr. in the Home Run Derby.

First, for the fact that despite missing the start to the season as he worked his way back from a torn ACL suffered last May, Acuña has been an incredible tear.

I mean, he homered in the first pitch he saw in his return:

Entering play on Tuesday, with just 28 games under his belt, Acuña has 40 hits, 16 RBI, and nine home runs already. He has a batting average of .396 and a slash line of .396/.500/.713.

The other reason we want to see Acuña in the Home Run Derby? To give him a chance to put on a show for the hometown fans.