The field of eight is set.
On Wednesday, MLB officially announced the eight competitors who will participate in the 2024 MLB Home Run Derby.
Six of the eight participants were confirmed before the announcement, including Mets first base Pedro Alonso. The final two sluggers joined the list on Wednesday as the field includes José Ramírez, Alec Bohm, Bobby Witt Jr., Marcell Ozuna, Gunnar Henderson, Adolis Garcia It is Teoscar Hernandez – announced the last player.
Alonso will have to navigate some of the league’s top home run hitters to take home his third career derby trophy, winning it in 2019 and 2021.
However, the format will be a little different this year.
Instead of seeding players from one to eight (based on the number of home runs they hit during the season) and having the competition be a three-round single-elimination bracket, as the league has done in the recent past, this time around there will be pre-determined seeds in the first round.
Instead, each hitter will compete against each other in the first round, trying to hit as many home runs as they can. After all competitors have hit, the four players who hit the most home runs will move on to the semifinals and will be ranked based on the number of home runs they hit.
If there is a tie in terms of multiple players hitting the same number of home runs in the first round, the tiebreaker will be who had the most home runs hit in that round.
