The 2026 Home Run Derby looks to be a thrilling competition with a revamped set of rules, but the Yankees won’t have much to root for outside of rooting against their division rival representatives after a disappointing first round. Their candidate to go the distance, Ben Rice, was eliminated in the first round after a showing that saw him collect the fewest home runs of the bunch with just seven bombs.
Boston’s Willson Contreras set the tone for the night, blasting several home runs over 450 feet and setting the benchmark for both the total that everyone would chase and the longest bomb at 13 home runs and 490 feet, respectively. St. Louis’ Jordan Walker managed to match his pace, getting hot out the gate for another 13 home runs while maxing out around 470 feet. Kansas City’s Jac Caglianone and Chicago’s Munetaka Murakami stepped up and proved that the first two were highwater marks to chase: both had stretches to start where they couldn’t get the ball to lift before cranking some moonshots to start a run, but neither came close to the heaters that Contreras and Walker had. Murakami ended with nine home runs and briefly held one of the spots to advance, while Caglianone was just below him with eight.
Ben Rice was the first up of the second batch of hitters and had perhaps the roughest opening of the group by the time he went, getting eaten up on several swings out of the gate. Two home runs in his first seven swings put him on a poor pace, but he hit a couple back-to-back to give the hope that he could find his groove. It still didn’t come though, and by the time he had five swings left he had just five homers tallied. One more managed to sneak its way out, but his final hack ended up being a popup straight back as he chased a pitch up near his hands. All in all, the opening round unfortunately ended with a Yankee in last place for the second straight year as Rice’s seven fell one short of tying Caglianone. Still, Rice’s performance was a lot closer to the pack than Jazz Chisholm Jr.‘s last year and it looked like the Yankee All-Star had a blast participating with his father on the mound, so it wasn’t all bad for the Bombers’ latest star.
The rest of the contestants behind Rice gave it their best shot at advancing, and a couple of them succeeded. Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero had a strong start to his night, collecting several homers in his first five swings before ending with the third-most of the round with 12. Then came the home crowd’s favorites, Philadelphia’s Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper, who both stumbled out of the gate before coming on strong. Schwarber secured the final spot with his 10th homer coming on his last swing to push him past Murakami (who held the tiebreaking distance-shot had he not), and Harper fell just short with nine.
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