Cal Raleigh victorious in 2025 Home Run Derby, becomes 1st catcher ever to win in thrilling fashion

Cal Raleigh the Seattle Mariners slugger who is MLB's leader in home runs at the All-Star break is the long ball king in Atlanta And he made history in the process Raleigh beat Tampa Bay Rays budding star Junior Caminero - in the final round to win the Home Run Derby at Truist Park on Monday night to kick off All-Star festivities CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS COM Big Dumper as he s affectionately known is the first catcher to ever win the event since it began four decades ago Raleigh is also the second Mariners player to ever win as Ken Griffey Jr the Hall of Famer who was in the dugout watching was the only one before this performance Raleigh who has belted homers in what has become his breakout season for the Mariners was all smiles as he and his father who pitched to him throughout the contest celebrated the supremacy As victor Raleigh also gets million from MLB while Caminero who stood to be the youngest Derby champion of all time at years old gets as runner-up There was a moment in the final round too where it appeared there might have been various debate as one of the ball boys shagging the non-home run balls in the outfield seemingly robbed a Caminero home run Caminero entered the bonus round needing five home runs to win but he didn't get close as he hit too several in play for the Raleigh achievement But Raleigh almost didn t make it out of the first round as he made it by literally an inch Athletics right-handed hitter Brent Rooker and Raleigh both topped out in the first round at feet with their longest home runs Being that they each had homers it came down to the exact distance and Raleigh s longest ball was calculated at feet compared to Rooker s -foot bomb Other than these two brilliant performances Pittsburgh Pirates slugger O'Neil Cruz had the the greater part memorable home run of the night The lefty who has clocked exit velocities higher than mph in his career hit a ball feet putting all of his -foot- frame into it Atlanta Braves star Matt Olsen was able to have a solid stretch toward the end of his first round but he wasn't able to crack into the top four Instead the final spot went to Byron Buxton who had a great bonus round to make it to the semifinals Buxton though had just seven homers in the next round leaving Caminero with just an eight-homer mark he had to reach He did so with ease and had a good amount of rest while Raleigh and Cruz battled it out head-to-head Washington Nationals young star James Wood had a respectable homers in the first round while New York Yankees infielder Jazz Chisholm Jr couldn't find the right stroke with just three homers tallied Follow Fox News Digital s sports coverage on X and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter