Home Run Derby in Philly: New rules, new TV home and an ex-Phillie in the booth

Phillies fans will be seeing double during Monday night’s Home Run Derby (8 p.m., Netflix).

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Two Phillies sluggers — Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber — are participating in tonight’s event, the first time Philly teammates will compete in the Derby in its 41-year history. And they’ll do it in front of a hometown crowd at Citizens Bank Park.

It’s a potential rematch of the 2018 Derby finals, when Harper was still with the Washington Nationals and Schwarber was playing for the Chicago Cubs. Harper edged out Schwarber by just one dinger, winning the competition 19 homers to 18.

“I think it would be a pretty cool ending there if that could happen,” Schwarber told reporters. “But we’ll see what happens.”

It’s the first time the Derby has been held at Citizens Bank Park, but not its first time in Philly. Veterans Stadium hosted the event in 1996, which was won by Hall of Famer Barry Bonds, who belted out 17 homers.

Bonds will be back in Philly covering the event for Netflix, which is streaming the Home Run Derby as part of a three-year deal that also included MLB’s opening night back in March and next month’s Field of Dreams game in Dyersville, Iowa between the Phillies and Minnesota Twins.

Among those joining Bonds on Netflix’s broadcast is one-time Phillies outfielder Hunter Pence, who spent a little more than a calendar year in Philly during the 2011 and 2012 seasons before being traded away to the San Francisco Giants.

“The Home Run Derby’s always been one of my favorite things as a kid,” Pence said. “I’m going to be in the stands a little bit. I’m going to be in the booth as well… Netflix definitely has some excitement up their sleeve.”

Netflix is the latest step in Pence’s second career as a broadcaster, which began as a fluke filling in last minute during COVID. He calls about 30 San Francisco Giants games a year as an analyst for NBC Sports Bay Area, and has broadcast games for MLB Network, Apple TV, and ESPN.

“I feel like I always get to come out to Philly,” Pence said. “I love the stadium, I love all the people there. And [John] Kruk comes over and talks to me every time… He makes sure I get the right cheesesteak and the right sandwich.”

Here’s everything you need to know to watch or stream this year’s Home Run Derby:

The 2026 MLB Home Run Derby is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. Eastern and will stream globally live on Netflix. It won’t air on either broadcast or cable TV.

Calling all the action will be Matt Vasgersian, with Elle Duncan and Lauren Shehadi also leading the coverage. In addition to Pence and Bonds, Albert Pujols, Anthony Rizzo, and CC Sabathia will also provide analysis.

Netflix hasn’t offered many details about its plans for the Derby, but if its opening night telecast is anything to go by, expect plenty of cross promotion and a lot of stars. Among them will be former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Michael Irvin, who hosts The White House video podcast for Netflix.

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Not participating for the second straight season is Baltimore Orioles first baseman Pete Alonso, one of only four players to win multiple Derby championships. Despite a strong first-half, Alonso wasn’t selected to this year’s All-Star Game.

Also not competing is last year’s winner, Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh, who has struggled this year after being last year’s American League MVP runner-up.

This year’s Derby has a different format than previous years.

For starters, there won’t be a timer. Instead, each slugger will get a set number of swings each round — 20 in the first round and 15 in both the second and final rounds.

The last Derby without a clock was 2014.

There’s also a “keep going” rule. If the batter hits a homer on his final attempt, he’ll keeping swinging until he fails to blast out a home run.

“I love it,” Pence said. “It’s really awesome for TV and healthier for the players. They’re not just having this endurance contest. We get to really feel each swing and each player.”

There also won’t be a bracket for the first round. Instead, the four sluggers with the most homers during the first round will move on to the second. There the competition shifts to head-to-head until a champion is crowned.

In the opening round, if multiple players hit the same number of home runs, the tiebreaker will go to whomever knocked out the longest home run.

Beyond that, ties will be settled by a three-swing swing-off. There have been just two ties in modern Derby history — Vladimir Guerrero Jr. edged out Joc Pederson in the third tiebreaker in 2019, while Juan Soto topped Shohei Ohtani in the first round of the swing-off in 2021.

The winner of the Derby takes home $1 million, which is more than the entire 2026 MLB salary of four of the participants — Caglianone ($784,000), Caminero ($794,800), Walker ($799,400) and Rice ($845,800).

The runner-up receives $500,000.

Two Phillies players have won the Derby — Bobby Abreu in 2005 and Ryan Howard in 2006.

Schwarber didn’t make it out of the first round in 2022, and Rhys Hoskins finished third in 2018, losing to Schwarber in the second round.

Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh topped the field last season, defeating Junior Caminero of the Tampa Bay Rays in the finals by three home runs.

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