In two weeks, eight of baseball’s top sluggers will meet in the 2025 Home Run Derby at Truist Park in Atlanta. Braves star Ronald Acuña Jr. will represent the host team. Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh is the only other player to commit to the event so far. The full eight-player Home Run Derby field will be revealed in the coming days.
One player who seems unlikely to participate in this year’s Home Run Derby: Shohei Ohtani. The Dodgers two-way star seemingly ruled out returning to the Home Run Derby this past weekend.
“With the current rules in place, I don’t think it’s feasible for me to be able to compete well,” Ohtani told reporters, including The Athletic, through an interpreter.
The Home Run Derby format was revised last year to lessen the workload on players. Players now get three minutes or 40 swings in the first and second rounds, then two minutes or 27 swings in the finals. There were concerns about fatigue and injury risk under the old timed format, so a limit on pitches and thus swings was implemented.
Ohtani recently returned to the mound and has allowed one run in four innings spanning three starts. He threw the hardest pitch of his MLB career over the weekend, though the Dodgers are handling the build up from his September 2023 elbow surgery very carefully. Going to the Home Run Derby and taking all those swings is an unnecessary risk.
In 2021, Ohtani became the first pitcher and the first Japanese-born player to take his hacks in the Home Run Derby. He hit 28 home runs in the first round but was eliminated by Juan Soto in a swing-off tiebreaker, and hasn’t participated since.
He and Yankees slugger Aaron Judge were named All-Star Game starters last week as the top vote-getters in their respective leagues.
Ohtani is hitting .287/.388/.633 with a National League-leading 29 home runs this season. The Dodgers are 53-32, tied with the Tigers for the best record in baseball. The Home Run Derby is scheduled for Monday, July 14.