Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh wins 2025 Home Run Derby
ATLANTA, GA - JULY 14: Cal Raleigh #29 of the Seattle Mariners, wearing #3 in honor of Babe Ruth, bats during the 2025 T-Mobile Home Run Derby at Truist Park on Monday, July 14, 2025 in Atlanta, Georgia. ( Mary DeCicco / MLB Photos / Getty Images)
The ‘Big Dumper’ is the 2025 Home Run Derby champion.
Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh bested Tampa Bay Rays star Junior Caminero in the final by an 18-15 margin to become the second Seattle player to win the Home Run Derby, joining Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr.
With his father, Todd Sr., pitching, and younger brother, Todd Jr., or "T," catching, Raleigh backed up his tremendous first half of the season by claiming the Derby crown on Monday night, becoming the first catcher and switch-hitter to emerge victorious.
The MLB's home run leader at the break with 38 home runs needed some good fortune just to remain in the chase after the first round. The switch-hitting standout hit eight home runs left-handed before taking his timeout. He then switched to right-handed for the rest of regulation time and hit seven more homers to reach a total of 15. For the bonus round, Raleigh switched back to left-handed and added two more homers to his total.
However, Raleigh's 17 home runs were only good enough for a fourth-place tie, which led to a tiebreaker with Brent Rooker of the Sacramento (formerly Oakland) Athletics. The longest home run was the tiebreaker with Raleigh's 470.61-foot home run squeaking by Rooker's 470.53-foot home run by the slimmest of margins to advance to the second round.
While the first round was the best four out of eight advancing, the second round featured two head-to-head matchups. Minnesota's Byron Buxton faced Tampa's Junior Caminero, and Raleigh drew Pittsburgh's Oneil Cruz.
Caminero quickly answered Buxton's seven home runs with eight of his own in about a minute to advance to the final.
Raleigh batted exclusively left-handed in the second round and quickly found a rhythm in the shorter two-minute round. He hit eight homers in the first 55 seconds before calling his timeout. He hit eight more homers in the final 65 seconds of regulation, and uncorked three more blasts in the bonus round to set a bar of 19 for Cruz to match.
Cruz couldn't recapture his magic from the first round, hitting too many line drives that didn't have the launch needed to close in with only 10 home runs in regulation. Cruz took his time in the bonus round and crushed three more homers before being limited to 13 home runs.
That set up a Raleigh vs. Caminero final, which was a matchup of the AL Co-Player of the Week Award winners from the last week of May.
Raleigh hit seven home runs in the first 56 seconds of the two-minute final before calling his timeout as he again elected to hit exclusively from the left side. Eight more home runs followed over the final minute with a last-ball, last-second blast to reach 15 homers in regulation. He then tackled on three more bombs in the bonus round to set a bar of 18 home runs for Caminero to chase.
Caminero hit seven home runs in the first 49 seconds of the final before calling his timeout. Seven more home runs followed over the final 1:11 of regulation as Caminero needed four home runs in the bonus round to tie, and five homers to win. But Caminero appeared gassed in the bonus round and could only manage one more home run as Raleigh earned the crown.
The backstory:
Griffey won the Home Run Derby on three separate occasions, all while a member of the Mariners. He beat out Fred McGriff of the Atlanta Braves at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh in 1994, and then won back-to-back crowns in 1998 and 1999, besting Jim Thome of the Cleveland Indians at Coors Field in Denver, and Jeromy Burnitz of the Milwaukee Brewers at Fenway Park in Boston.
Griffey also finished as a runner-up twice, losing to Mark McGwire of the Oakland Athletics at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego in 1992, and Juan Gonzalez of the Texas Rangers at Camden Yards in Baltimore in 1993 before getting his first win in 1994.
Julio Rodríguez finished as the runner-up to Juan Soto of the Washington Nationals in the 2022 Derby at Dodger Stadium.
The Source: Information in this story came from the ESPN broadcast and FOX 13 Seattle reporting.
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