A switch-hitting catcher winning the Derby. A young slugger crushing a 513-foot home run (and many more towering blasts). A tiebreaker determined by less than an inch. The 2025 Home Run Derby had it all.

When it was all said and done, Seattle’s Cal Raleigh came out victorious in one of the most thrilling Home Run Derby events we’ve had. Here’s a look back at some of the fun facts and best moments from the ‘25 Derby in Atlanta.

In another storybook moment in a storybook season, Raleigh became the first catcher to win the Home Run Derby and the first switch-hitter to outright win the contest (switch-hitting Ruben Sierra tied with Eric Davis in 1989).

Even more remarkable was the fact that Raleigh only advanced out of the first round by the slimmest of margins. With 17 home runs, Raleigh was tied with Brent Rooker for the final spot in the next round, with the tiebreaker going to the player with the longest home run distance. Those distances? 470.62 feet for Raleigh … and 470.54 feet for Rooker. The difference was less than an inch.

In the first round, the switch-hitting Raleigh also became the second player to bat from both sides of the plate in the Derby, joining fellow catcher Adley Rutschman, who did it in 2023 in Seattle. Raleigh hit eight home runs as a left-hander before his timeout, seven homers as a righty and then another two from the left side in the bonus round.

Raleigh hit a total of 54 home runs in the Derby — 17 in the first round, 19 in the semifinals to defeat Oneil Cruz (13) and 18 in the final to beat Junior Caminero (15). Coincidentally, 54 home runs is the same number Raleigh has to hit this year to equal Mickey Mantle’s record for the most homers by a switch-hitter in a single season.

The biggest home run of the Derby came from — who else? — Oneil Cruz. The Pirates center fielder crushed a 513-foot home run in the first round, which is tied with Aaron Judge for the longest Derby home run outside of Coors Field under Statcast tracking, which goes back to 2016 for Home Run Derbies. Judge hit one 513 feet in the 2017 Home Run Derby at Marlins Park. Cruz and Judge are the only players to hit 500-footers in a non-Coors Derby (Judge hit four in 2017).

Even if you include the 2021 Home Run Derby at Coors, where balls travel much farther in the high altitude, Cruz’s 513-footer is still one of the five longest in the decade of Statcast-tracked Derbies. The only longer homers (all in 2021): 520 feet by Juan Soto, 518 feet by Trevor Story and 514 feet by Pete Alonso. Then came Cruz, Judge and Shohei Ohtani (at Coors), all tied for fourth at 513.

Cruz also added a 498-foot home run in the semifinals, the sixth-longest Derby homer outside of Coors after his and Judge’s 500-footers, as well as a 492-foot home run. Cruz, Judge and Giancarlo Stanton are the only players with multiple 490-foot homers in non-Coors Derbies.

All told, Cruz hit one home run 500-plus feet, three home runs 490-plus feet, nine home runs 475-plus feet and 18 home runs 450-plus feet. Those are some remarkable benchmarks for a single Home Run Derby.

Cruz’s 498-foot homer also had an exit velocity of 119 mph — tied for the fourth-hardest home run hit in any Derby since 2016. Stanton and Judge had accounted for all of the previous six Derby homers hit 119 mph or harder.

Before eventually falling to Raleigh in the finals, Caminero made good on his promise to “put on a show” when he was announced as a Derby participant for the first time. The Rays third baseman tied Cruz for the highest total of the first round with 21, then dispatched Byron Buxton in the semifinals by hitting eight home runs in less than a minute.

Caminero, whose 78.0 mph average bat speed ranks second in MLB to only Cruz, showed off his pull power in impressive fashion Monday. All 44 of his home runs were to left, left-center or center field. A player whose longest career homer measures 429 feet routinely beat that mark in the Derby, bashing 28 homers at that distance or longer. Caminero maxed out at 475 feet on a homer in the first round, adding long balls of 474, 470 and 469 feet during his big night.

He also displayed some elite exit velocity: Caminero’s first bonus-round homer during the first round, a 446-foot shot, was hit at 117 mph. Apart from Cruz, no other Derby contestant hit a homer at an exit velocity above 112 mph. In his career, Caminero’s two hardest-hit balls are tied at 116.5 mph.

Unfortunately for Caminero, the Rays standout wasn’t able to win the Derby as a late birthday present after turning 22 on July 5. Had he beaten Raleigh, he would have been the youngest player to win the Derby — an honor currently held by Juan Gonzalez in 1993 (23 years, 265 days old).

A whole lot of long balls

James Wood‘s second home run of the night, a 486-footer, was briefly the longest non-Coors Derby homer hit since 2019, when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. led the pack with a 488-foot home run at Progressive Field. (That was, of course, until Cruz had his say.) Just three other players have hit home runs of at least 486 feet in a non-Coors Derby: Aaron Judge, Miguel Sano and Giancarlo Stanton. Pretty good company.

Although he put on a good show for his hometown crowd, Matt Olson ran the Braves up to 15 fruitless Home Run Derby appearances, the most for any club without a Derby champ in the event’s history.

210 home runs were hit on the night, the fewest in a Derby since 2017, but it was very much a case of quality over quantity — the average distance on said homers was 432 feet, the highest of any non-Coors Home Run Derby since 2017.