ATLANTA — The Seattle Mariners’ Cal Raleigh won his first All-Star Home Run Derby after leading the big leagues in long balls going into the break, defeating the Tampa Bay Rays’ Junior Caminero 18-15 in the final round Monday night.
The breakout slugger nicknamed “Big Dumper” advanced from the first round on a tiebreaker by less than an inch over the Athletics’ Brent Rooker, then won his semifinal 19-13 over the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Oneil Cruz, whose 513-foot first-round drive over Truist Park’s right-center-field seats was the longest of the night.
Hitting second in the final round, the 22-year-old Caminero closed within three dingers, took three pitches and hit a liner to left field.
Becoming the first switch hitter and first catcher to win the title, Raleigh had reached the All-Star break with a major-league-leading 38 home runs. He became the second Mariners player to take the title after three-time winner Ken Griffey Jr.
Raleigh was pitched to by his father, Todd, former coach of Tennessee and Western Carolina. His younger brother Todd Raleigh Jr. did the catching.
Just the second Derby switch hitter after the Baltimore Orioles’ Adley Rutschman in 2023, Raleigh hit his first eight left-handed, took a timeout, then hit seven right-handed. Going back to lefty, he then hit two more in the bonus round and stayed lefty for the semifinals and the final.
Caminero beat the Minnesota Twins’ Byron Buxton 8-7 in the other semifinal.
The Atlanta Braves’ Matt Olson, the Washington Nationals’ James Wood, the New York Yankees’ Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Rooker were eliminated in the first round of the annual power show.
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Cruz and Caminero each hit 21 long balls and Buxton had 20 in the opening round. Raleigh and Rooker had 17 apiece, but Raleigh advanced on the tiebreaker of their longest homer, 470.61 feet to 470.53.
Cruz’s long drive was the hardest hit at 118 mph.
The longest derby homer since Statcast started tracking in 2016 was 520 feet by Juan Soto in the mile-high air of Denver’s Coors Field in 2021. Last year, the longest drive in Arlington, Texas, was 473 feet by the Braves’ Marcell Ozuna.
Wood hit 16 homers, including a 486-foot shot and one that landed on the roof of the Chop House behind the right-field wall. Olson, disappointing his hometown fans, did not go deep on his first nine swings and finished with 15. He also was eliminated in the first round in 2021.
Chisholm hit just three homers, the fewest since the timer format started in 2015.
