Major League Baseball is scrapping the timer. After a decade of watching hitters sprint through at-bats against a countdown clock, the league is returning to a swing-based format for the 2026 Home Run Derby. The Athletic broke the news Wednesday, and the reaction around the sport has been fast and loud.
Here’s the big change: Each hitter will get a fixed number of swings instead of a set amount of time. In the first round, all eight participants will take 20 swings. The semifinals and finals drop to 15 swings per contestant. No more three-minute buzzer. No more frantic hacking with five seconds left.
The twist comes on the final swing. If a batter goes deep on his last allotted cut, the round keeps going — until he makes an out or hits something that stays in the park. That rule applies in every round, which means a hot streak could push a player well past the original swing limit. It’s a smart pressure release, designed to reward power without the artificial tension of a ticking clock.
Why the change?
The clock format was introduced in 2015 to speed up the show and create urgency. And it worked — for a while. But sources told The Athletic that some players found the timed rounds physically draining. The relentless swing-and-chase rhythm made the Derby feel more like a sprint than a display of raw power. The new system gives hitters the freedom to pick their spots and take pitches, something the old format effectively eliminated.
This marks the first swing-based Home Run Derby since 2014. It also ends an 11-year experiment with timed rounds, which included the most recent structure of three minutes (or 40 pitches) in the opening round and two minutes (or 27 pitches) in the semifinals and final.
Format and tiebreakers
The bracket stays the same: eight players in Round 1, the top four home run totals advance, seeded by performance. First-round ties are broken by the longest home run distance. In the semifinals and final, a tie triggers a three-swing shootout. Straightforward, and a nice nod to the classic Derby feel.
Broadcast shake-up and defending champ
The 2026 Derby will be held July 13 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, the night before the All-Star Game. But there’s another major change off the field: Netflix is taking over the broadcast after nearly 30 years on ESPN. That alone signals how much MLB is willing to shake up its All-Star week presentation.
Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh enters as the defending champion after outlasting Junior Caminero in last year’s final. Raleigh might benefit from the new rules more than anyone — a guy with that kind of raw power and patience could thrive without a clock screaming at him.
The 2026 Derby is already shaping up to be a completely different beast. No buzzer. No rush. Just swings.
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