MLB abolishes the clock in the Home Run Derby: from 2026, the number of swings, not the race against time, will decide
Major League Baseball has confirmed a major format change for the 2026 T-Mobile Home Run Derby, one of the most recognizable events of All-Star week. According to MLB's announcement, the competition is moving away from the system in which hitters were limited by time and is returning to a model in which each player has a predetermined number of swings. The change will be applied for the first time on July 13, 2026, at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, one day before the 96th edition of the MLB All-Star Game. The official All-Star week schedule states that the Derby will begin at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time and will be streamed live on Netflix. This means that one of American baseball's most watched accompanying events is changing both competitively and in media terms at the same time, because 2026 marks the first year in which the Home Run Derby moves to Netflix as part of a new broadcast package.
What the new format will look like
In the new system, the first round will no longer be decided by how many home runs a player can hit before the clock expires, but by how many he can produce from 20 allowed swings. In the semifinal and final, the number of attempts is reduced to 15 swings, which should change the rhythm of the entire event. MLB states that every swing will count, regardless of whether the ball finishes over the fence or not. This means there will no longer be a possibility for a hitter, as in the time-limited format, to push the tempo to the absolute limit in order to draw as many pitches as possible in a few minutes. Every swing becomes a separate moment of the competition, and a miss or a poorly hit ball has immediate value because it uses up the limited pool of attempts.
The most interesting addition concerns the final swing in each round. According to MLB's explanation of the new rules, if a player hits a home run with his final allowed swing, his performance will not end immediately. He will earn the right to continue hitting until his next attempt fails to produce another home run. In practice, this means that a competitor who hits a home run on the 20th swing in the first round can continue the series with the 21st, 22nd, or every subsequent swing, but only as long as each new hit leaves the field of play. The same rule will also apply to the 15th swing in the semifinal and final.
The format still retains eight participants, the framework viewers have become used to in recent years. After the first round, the four best hitters will advance, determined by the number of home runs hit. According to MLB, in the event of a tie in the first round, the distance of the longest home run among the tied players will decide. In the later rounds, ties will be resolved with additional series of three swings each, until a winner is obtained. Such a rule is especially important because the new format will reduce the total number of attempts per player, so the standings could be tighter than in the timed model, in which the best hitters were sometimes able to create very large gaps.
The end of the race against time that marked the past decade
MLB introduced the timed format into the Home Run Derby in 2015, and the clock then became one of the main dramatic tools of the competition. Hitters tried to take as many swings as possible in a short period, often with a very fast pitching rhythm and minimal pauses between hits. That system produced explosive finishes, but at the same time created pressure that changed the appearance of the competition. Instead of anticipation before every hit, the Derby increasingly turned into a continuous series of swings in which the most attractive moments were sometimes lost in the speed of the broadcast.
The return to a swing-based system is therefore not only a technical change, but also an attempt to restore the older rhythm of the event. Before the introduction of the clock, the Home Run Derby used, in different periods, models with a limited number of "outs", meaning attempts that did not end in a home run. The new system is not identical to the old rules, because every swing is now counted, but MLB describes it as a format closer to the pre-timer era. The key difference compared with the older "out" systems is that it no longer matters whether the hit ended as ordinary contact, a miss, or a ball caught in the field: every attempt uses the same unit. This makes the rules clearer to viewers, while competitors have less room to rely on a large number of weaker contacts.
The change could also affect the physical effort of the participants. In the time-limited system, players often tried to speed up the series as much as possible, which created fatigue, especially for those who went through multiple rounds. In the new format, the tempo should be more moderate, because there is no benefit from rushing between swings. The player and pitcher can coordinate better, the audience can follow the number of remaining attempts more clearly, and the television or streaming broadcast gets more natural pauses for showing replays, distances, and reactions. It is precisely this sense of rhythm that is one of the main reasons why MLB presents the change as a modernization of the event, and not as a mere return to an old model.
Philadelphia gets the central event of All-Star Monday
The 2026 Home Run Derby will be held at Citizens Bank Park, the stadium of the Philadelphia Phillies that opened in 2004. According to MLB's official schedule, All-Star week in Philadelphia will run from July 10 to 14 and will include a series of events, including the HBCU Swingman Classic, the All-Star Futures Game, MLBx All-Star 3-on-3, the MLB Draft, Capital One All-Star Village, the Home Run Derby, and the All-Star Game. The Derby is placed in the traditional All-Star Monday slot, immediately before the game featuring the best players from the American and National Leagues. Such a schedule preserves its role as the main spectacle of the evening before the All-Star Game, but in 2026 it places it within the broader context of a special sporting and cultural program in Philadelphia.
MLB previously announced that the 96th All-Star Game will be played on July 14, 2026, at the same stadium, one day after the Derby. In the official announcement by the league and the Phillies, it was emphasized that All-Star week in Philadelphia coincides with the celebration of the 250th anniversary of American independence. For an international audience, the most important sporting fact is that the city will host MLB's main summer program over five days. Citizens Bank Park will be the center of the most important on-field events, while part of the fan activities and the MLB Draft will take place at the Pennsylvania Convention Center and other locations in the city. This means the Home Run Derby does not function in isolation, but as the most attractive television and stadium event at the center of All-Star week.
Netflix takes over the broadcast and enters live MLB events
The format change comes at a time when the way MLB content is distributed is also changing. According to MLB's official announcement about media rights, the league has reached new three-year agreements with Netflix, NBCUniversal, and ESPN for the period from 2026 to 2028. In that package, Netflix takes over the T-Mobile Home Run Derby, an exclusive Opening Night game, and additional special MLB events, including MLB at Field of Dreams in 2026. MLB stated in the same announcement that Netflix broadcasts will be produced by the MLB Network production team in cooperation with Netflix's team. This means the event is not changing only on the field, but also in the way it will be presented to viewers around the world.
Netflix confirmed in its own announcement that in 2026 it will begin streaming several live MLB events, including the T-Mobile Home Run Derby. The platform states that the Derby will be held in Philadelphia on July 13 and that it is one of the best-known skills competitions in sports. For MLB, this transition is important because the Home Run Derby is not an ordinary game with local or national fan interest, but a television and digital spectacle that can be offered to a wider audience. For Netflix, which in recent years has been expanding its live broadcast portfolio, the Derby offers a format with clear rules, recognizable stars, and short, dramatic moments that can easily stand out in global distribution.
In that context, it is also possible to understand why MLB wants to slow down the rhythm of the competition itself. The system with 20 and 15 swings enables simpler graphic tracking, clearer replays of key hits, and better tension-building before the final attempts. If a player approaches the final swing, the broadcast can naturally emphasize how many attempts he has left and what he needs in order to advance. The rule about continuing after a home run on the final swing additionally creates a moment that is ideal for a live broadcast: the audience immediately knows that every next swing can mean either the continuation of the series or the end of the round.
What the change means for players and tactics
For the hitters themselves, the new format brings a different tactical problem. In the time-limited system, the key was to find the balance between power, speed, and endurance. The player had to hit many balls in a short period, and the pitcher serving him the balls also played an important role in that. In the system with a limited number of swings, the importance of rhythm will not disappear, but it will change. A hitter will no longer gain an advantage simply because he can maintain a high frequency of attempts; he will have to convert each swing into a hit over the fence more efficiently.
This could favor players who have a more stable, more controlled swing and rely less on an extreme volume of attempts. On the other hand, competitors known for long series in a short time will have to adjust their approach. Since every swing counts, a poorly chosen pitch or an early slip into an impatient rhythm can be more costly than before. In the first round, 20 attempts still provide room to recover after a weaker start, but in the semifinal and final, 15 swings significantly increase the value of every contact. In the closing stage, especially if the score is within two or three home runs, a player can no longer count on making up the deficit in the final 30 seconds with a rapid sequence of attempts.
The rule about an extended series after the final swing will be especially interesting. It encourages players not to treat the final attempt merely as a formality, but as an opportunity to open additional space. Instead of going for safe contact on the final attempt, a player could look for a full swing more aggressively, knowing that a home run extends his performance. For the audience, this creates a situation similar to overtime: after the officially final attempt, the competition can remain alive, but only as long as the hitter continues hitting home runs. Such simple drama is probably one of the reasons why MLB believes the new format will be more attractive.
A reaction to the experience of previous editions
The Home Run Derby has often changed details of its rules over four decades, and the change for 2026 fits into a long history of adjustments. In its announcement of MLB broadcasts, Netflix states that the Derby was introduced in 1985 as part of the All-Star festivities and that over the years it has created a series of recognizable moments with the league's biggest sluggers. Recent decades have shown that MLB regularly adapts the competition to the audience, players, and television format. When the clock was introduced in 2015, the goal was to speed up the event and create a more energetic television product. Now, according to the direction of the new rules, the emphasis has shifted to clarity, individual tension, and better tracking of every hit.
The immediate reference point for the new edition will remain the 2025 Derby, when Cal Raleigh of the Seattle Mariners won the title in Atlanta. According to MLB's report, Raleigh became the first catcher to win the Home Run Derby, and in the final he defeated Junior Caminero by a score of 18-15. His victory showed how much the format can create a strong individual story, especially when the competitor emerges as an unexpected or historic winner. MLB wants to preserve precisely such stories, but make them more readable in the broadcast. If similar comebacks appear in 2026, the new system could make them clearer because every viewer will know at every moment how many swings remain and what is needed to advance.
Unlike regular games, the Derby is a competition in which the rules shape almost the entire experience. In a game, the rhythm comes from the alternation of innings, defense, pitching, and situations on the bases. In the Derby, the rhythm arises exclusively from the relationship between the hitter, pitcher, number of attempts, and audience. That is why the change from a time limit to a number of swings is not cosmetic, but changes the basic architecture of the event. It can reduce the sense of chaos, increase the value of an individual hit, and bring back part of the anticipation that was often lost in the faster format.
Modernization based on simpler rules
MLB presents the change as a way to modernize the Home Run Derby and make it more appealing to viewers, but it is interesting that the modernization is not based on a more complicated system. On the contrary, the new rules are easier to explain: 20 swings in the first round, 15 in the semifinal, 15 in the final, and a home run on the final swing extends the performance while the series lasts. Such simplicity is important for an event that is increasingly addressing an international audience and viewers who may not follow MLB every day. In baseball, a sport with many statistical layers, the Home Run Derby remains one of the rare moments in which the score can be understood almost without prior knowledge.
For the league, the stake is larger than one evening competition. All-Star week serves as a showcase for the most recognizable players, sponsors, media partners, and the fan experience. According to MLB's official information, the program in Philadelphia includes professional, developmental, and fan events over several days, and the Home Run Derby remains one of its commercially most important parts. If the new format succeeds in establishing a better balance between sporting competition and entertainment, it could become the foundation for future editions. If, however, it produces too few attempts or a smaller number of home runs than the audience expects, MLB will probably reconsider corrections, as it has done before.
For now, it is known that the changes will be applied as early as July 13, 2026, in Philadelphia, while the list of eight participants has not been officially announced. This means that the largest part of the competitive story has yet to develop through the season, depending on the form of the biggest hitters, injuries, invitations, and players' willingness to take part. But the framework is set: the Home Run Derby is entering a new phase without a clock, with a clear number of swings and with a broadcast on a streaming platform that wants to present the event to a global audience. Instead of a race against time, precision, power, and the ability to turn every remaining swing into a moment that can change the standings will decide.
Sources:
- Major League Baseball – official announcement about the format change for the 2026 T-Mobile Home Run Derby (link)
- Major League Baseball – official schedule of 2026 MLB All-Star week in Philadelphia (link)
- Major League Baseball – announcement about new media rights with Netflix, NBCUniversal, and ESPN for the 2026-2028 period (link)
- Netflix Tudum – announcement of live MLB events on Netflix, including the 2026 T-Mobile Home Run Derby (link)
- Major League Baseball – report on the 2025 Home Run Derby results and Cal Raleigh's victory (link)