The Orioles didn’t take batting practice before Thursday’s game against the Chicago Cubs, so Gunnar Henderson used that free time to prepare for his first career MLB Home Run Derby appearance.
The shortstop and Triple-A Norfolk manager Buck Britton, who will pitch to Henderson in Monday night’s Derby, spent about 20 minutes practicing for the contest. Britton scooped baseballs from a bucket and delivered them to the plate with haste while Henderson sprayed them across the Camden Yards outfield and seats.
Off to the side was Colton Cowser, who won’t be in Arlington, Texas, this week but played an important role for his teammate nonetheless. He held a timer to keep Henderson and Britton on track. The three took frequent breaks, each one getting them closer to achieving the best strategy.
“We were just trying to figure out the pace of things,” the 23-year-old shortstop said. “Trying to figure out where the honey hole would be.”
The three worked in unison to prepare for the Home Run Derby’s new format, which MLB hopes strikes the right balance between avoiding player fatigue and creating peak enjoyment for viewers.
The changes will debut Monday. In the opening round and the semifinals of the eight-man competition, each batter will have either three minutes or 40 pitches, whichever comes first, to hit as many long balls as possible. In the final round, hitters will receive either two minutes or 27 pitches.
Under the previous format, there was still a time limit but no pitch restriction. It produced a rapid-fire pace that wore down hitters and prevented fans from watching most balls land before the next pitch was thrown.
How bonus time is determined was also tweaked. Previously, hitters received 30 additional seconds after their four minutes and could earn another 30 seconds if they hit a ball more than 440 feet in regulation time. Now, batters will receive bonus pitches until they hit into three outs — any swing that does not result in a home run — in another effort to slow down the pace.
The tournament-style format is also no more. Rather than players being seeded and competing head-to-head to advance to the second round, all eight competitors will hit and the top four scores advance. The remaining hitters will then be seeded for the semifinals based on how many homers they hit in the opening round.
“Last year, you could just go up there and swing as many times as you can,” Henderson said. “But this one, you get 40 pitches. You pretty much have to swing at everything.”
Henderson, who has the most home runs this season of anyone in the field, is the third Oriole in the past four years to compete in the Home Run Derby and the 13th to participate in the event’s 39-year history, the most by any team in MLB.
If Henderson wins, he’d become the youngest Home Run Derby victor ever and just the ninth shortstop to win. He’d join Cal Ripken Jr. (1991) and Miguel Tejada (2004) as the only Baltimore representatives to win.
Chris Davis, Adam Jones, Manny Machado and Mark Trumbo each competed from 2013 to 2016, but none took home the trophy. Trey Mancini and Adley Rutschman participated in 2021 and 2023. In his first season after returning from stage 3 colon cancer, Mancini advanced to the final round of the event but came up just short. Brady Anderson and Rafael Palmeiro also competed twice.
Henderson has peppered Eutaw Street, the Camden Yards flag court and the center field bleachers throughout his young career. On Monday, he’ll get to do it in the stadium where his team’s 2023 season ended before starting in the All-Star Game alongside Rutschman the next day.