Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: Major League Baseball is changing the Home Run Derby format.
The All-Star Game skills event has waned in interest over recent years, and in an attempt to revitalize it, MLB announced Sunday a new time-based bracket format for the derby. According to MLB, this year’s event will consist of an eight-player bracket field with single-elimination timed play.
The field has yet to be determined, but once it is, players will be seeded Nos. 1 through 8 based on how many home runs they have this season. Those will be the first-round matchups. The bracket is single-elimination.
Those matchups will consist of each player getting 5 minutes for each round. Unlike past years, there will be no outs, as it’s just 5 minutes to hit as many home runs as possible. Additionally, bonus time will be awarded based on distance of home runs. For example, a home run of more than 475 feet will add 30 seconds of hitting time to that player’s overall time.
If rounds are tied after the allotted times, the two hitters will settle things in a 90-second “swing-off.”
The 2015 Home Run Derby will be held July 13 at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati. Detroit Tigers slugger Yoenis Cespedes is the derby’s two-time defending champion.
Thumbnail photo via Jesse Johnson/USA TODAY Sports Images