Does flag planting have a place in college football?
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Kyle Bonagura, ESPN Staff Writer
AS MICHIGAN FOOTBALL players took their Block M flag to midfield at Ohio Stadium after their 13-10 win against rival Ohio State on Nov. 30, they unwittingly set off a chain of events that still has the college football world talking.
Inside a celebratory mass of players, a small group stood at the center and waved the flag back and forth before symbolically planting it at the 50-yard line. It was the Wolverines’ fourth straight win against the Buckeyes, and, again, they claimed their territory as their own.
None of this should have caught anyone off guard. When the Wolverines won at Ohio State in 2022, they celebrated the same way. Then-coach Jim Harbaugh thought so highly of it that he had the moment memorialized by displaying the flag itself prominently in the team museum at Schembechler Hall.
“I love it, love seeing that,” coach Sherrone Moore, then the offensive coordinator said of the flag the following spring. “I think about that game every day, think about every moment. When you walk in the building, you see it as soon as you walk in. Obviously, you see all the things about the rivalry and what it is, and you think about that every day. It’s constantly on my mind.”
That year, the on-field response was tame. There were agitated Ohio State players, but nothing outside the norm of what often transpires in the immediate aftermath of any big rivalry game.
This year, that was not the case.
Michigan’s flag plant sparked a five-minute brawl that led to the use of pepper spray by police, left players and coaches from both sides bloodied and resulted in one police officer receiving medical attention.
It was the first of five similar postgame celebrations on college football’s rivalry Saturday, with South Carolina (at Clemson), NC State (at North Carolina), Florida (at Florida State) and Arizona State (at Arizona) all staking territory at midfield after road wins.
By the time Texas put the finishing touches on its victory at Texas A&M that night — the first game in a high-stakes, heated rivalry that had not been played since 2011 — Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian knew he had to prevent a similar scene at Kyle Field. Earlier in the season, Texas linebacker David Gbenda planted a Longhorns flag after winning at Michigan, but Sarkisian quickly made his way to midfield this time and ushered his players away.
“I just watched Ohio State and Michigan get into a full-fledged brawl in my hotel room today, and I just didn’t think it was right,” Sarkisian said in the postgame news conference. “Rivalries are great, but there’s a way to win with class. And I just didn’t think that’s the right thing to do. We shouldn’t be on their logo.”
Ahead of the first home-hosted playoff games in college football this week, flag-planting conversations have raged on. Some coaches, and even pro athletes, are for it; others are against it. One state lawmaker went as far as to introduce a bill to make the act a felony.
It’s all, apparently, up for debate.
IN 2017, A Reddit user named Nathan Bingham created what he called the College Football Imperialism Map. Every county in the country was allotted to whatever FBS program was closest to its geographic center. Then as games were played, the map was updated with the winner of each game acquiring whatever territory was possessed by the team they played.
It effectively turned the college football season into a modified version of the popular board game Risk, where fans got to see their team plant its proverbial flag (logo) in acquired territory across the country. It was an immediate hit. A lot of that can be attributed to how visually satisfying the map is — especially when it updates — but the exercise also tapped into the uniquely tribalistic nature of college football.
More so than in professional sports, where teams are made up of players from all over the country or world, college football programs have historically been a reflection of their region.
1:18
Tempers flare as NC State attempts to plant flag following win over UNC
The end of NC State vs. North Carolina devolves into chaos as Wolfpack players take offense to a Tar Heels player throwing their flag onto the ground.
That has become less the case as recruiting has become more of a national game, but the general sentiment remains. That dynamic contributes to why rivalries are more prevalent in college: They extend to academics, other sports and beyond.
“In some ways [a rivalry] kind of morphs into an identity thing where part of being a member of one team is a desire to beat a specific team or have distaste for that team,” said Dr. Francesco Dandekar, the associate director for sports psychiatry at Stanford University. “In those situations when your identity is in play or at stake, people will also do things that maybe they wouldn’t normally do because it just feels like it’s more necessary.”
It helps explain why, perhaps, flag-planting celebrations have become more of an issue after rivalry games than lower-stakes games. For the Ohio State players, Michigan’s celebration was received as an affront to their collective identity.
“Probably what people are reacting to is the idea that, ‘We have conquered you,'” Dandekar said. “It can be taken as a very direct sign of disrespect to say, ‘OK, we’ve not only beaten you, we are going to somehow deface your field and somehow claim your stadium for our own.'”
It’s as if the Imperialism Map came to life.
From the outside, it’s easy to look at college football players celebrating a win by slamming PVC pipe into artificial turf and conclude: It’s not that deep. And the idea that the act warrants a physical response can be dismissed out of hand.
But after a 3½-hour football game, Dandekar said, it becomes a lot harder to regulate your behavior.
“In the heat of the moment, all of us will function suboptimally if you subject us to strong enough emotion,” he said. “It’s been studied up and down. When we start to increase the magnitude of emotion that we’re feeling, it’s harder for our prefrontal cortex — which is the sort of higher order decision-making part of our brain — to modulate that.
“And in a sport like football, in which you are encouraged to be maximally aggressive within the stated rules — you are in a very sort of heightened state. … If someone does something that seems flagrantly disrespectful, your behavior is going to be more difficult to modulate.”
For the layman, all the evidence for what Dandekar explained was captured on video in the Ohio State postgame, most notably with Buckeyes defensive end Jack Sawyer being held back as he shouted, “They’re not f—ing planting the flag on our field again, bro.”
CELEBRATORY FLAG PLANTING is not new in college football.
It’s hard to pin down how long it has been going on, but cursory research found examples dating at least 20 years.
After Michigan State upset Notre Dame 44-41 in overtime in 2005, two players — Eric Smith and Kaleb Thornhill — executed one of the more memorable celebrations.
“It was impulsive,” Thornhill told the Lansing State Journal in 2017. “That’s what’s special about the game of football. We were in the moment, and we slammed that flag in the middle of the field.”
A few weeks later, Minnesota did it after a win against Michigan, and an attempt by Georgia was thwarted by police officers after winning at Tennessee.
In response, then-Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany sent a conference-wide memo that said flag-planting celebrations had to stop, which was followed by a similar message in the SEC that outlined how flag planting was a violation of the conference’s sportsmanship policy.
It wasn’t until 2017 that another such celebration captured national consciousness. That’s when college football’s patron saint of flag planting, eventual Heisman Trophy-winner Baker Mayfield, made his way to the Block O at Ohio Stadium and planted an Oklahoma flag in the wake of the No. 5 Sooners’ 31-16 win against No. 2 Ohio State.
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Mayfield plants Oklahoma flag at Ohio State midfield
After circling The Horseshoe with the Oklahoma flag, quarterback Baker Mayfield runs to midfield and stabs the Ohio State logo surrounded by teammates.
At the time, it was met with major backlash, and it resulted in Mayfield issuing an apology two days later.
“I didn’t mean for it to be disrespectful to any Ohio State people at all, especially the team or the players, because they’re a great team and a great program,” Mayfield said at the time. “It was an emotional game. I knew that it was going to have a lot of implications on the playoffs. … I got caught up in an emotional win. Yeah, it should’ve been something I did in the locker room. So I apologize for doing it in the middle of the field.”
The incident followed Mayfield to the NFL, and in 2019, former Ohio State star Nick Bosa exacted revenge during a “Monday Night Football” game, when he sacked Mayfield — then playing for the Cleveland Browns — and celebrated with a wave and plant of an imaginary flag.
“I think everybody knows what that was for,” Bosa said after the game. “I just wanted to get payback. He had it coming.”
After the recent wave of flag planting and having already addressed Texas planting a flag over his Oklahoma jersey after the Longhorns beat the Sooners in the Red River Rivalry in October this year, Mayfield was asked again for his thoughts on this brand of celebration.
”College football is meant to have rivalries,” Mayfield said. “That’s like the Big 12 banning the ‘horns down’ signal. Just let the boys play.”
FOR MID-AMERICAN CONFERENCE commissioner Jon Steinbrecher, the flag-planting debate is part of a larger conversation about sportsmanship in college sports.
After seeing the postgame fights in football and behavior on the sidelines by college basketball coaches, he felt compelled to write a letter to NCAA president Charlie Baker and the NCAA Division I board of directors on Dec. 5 with the subject line: Sportsmanship (or the absence thereof).
“The term poor sportsmanship does not capture the lack of decorum exhibited by coaches, student-athletes, and fans,” he wrote. “A portion of the behavior, in a non-sports context, could be considered criminal.”
In an interview with ESPN after he sent the letter, Steinbrecher reaffirmed those beliefs, expressing frustration about the state of play in college sports.
“I think it’s very much a reflection of what we see in society today that people, on all sorts of levels, seem to ignore norms or traditions,” he said. “In many circumstances, I think people are much more in your face. I think it has to do with the heightened scrutiny and pressure that people feel. We have, for some time now, athletes at all levels doing more and more things to draw attention to themselves.” Part of that trend is how incentives have changed. In the name, image and likeness era, personal branding has a significant impact on athletes’ ability to make money. There is no financial value in blending in.
“In my mind, this isn’t about enacting a bunch of rules,” Steinbrecher said. “It’s about saying this is what the standard is, and we’re going to live to that standard, and we’re going to hold ourselves accountable to that standard. And when we don’t live up to that, we’ll address it.”
0:49
Norvell initially snubs Napier’s handshake as FSU-Florida get into it
FSU coach Mike Norvell initially avoids shaking Florida coach Billy Napier’s hand after the Gators plant their flag in the middle of the Seminoles’ logo at the game’s conclusion.
Steinbrecher admits, however, that finding an effective way to discipline college athletes isn’t so straightforward.
“In the NFL, they have a financial system [where teams and leagues can fine a player],” he said. “Probably at the collegiate level we have a participation system, right? What’s everybody want? Playing time.”
But those punishments function much differently. A fine in pro sports hurts only that individual. When a player is sidelined, the team feels it.
It goes further than that. Many college football coaches have financial bonuses for games won each season, which gives them personal financial incentives not to suspend star players. Some athletic directors also have similar win bonuses.
Are they expected to punish themselves?
One extreme solution arrived in the form of political grandstanding last week, when Ohio state Rep. Josh Williams introduced a bill, the O.H.I.O. Sportsmanship Act, that would classify flag planting at Ohio Stadium on football gamedays as a fifth-degree felony.
“After it happened at five separate games during Rivalry Week, and seeing that there was no immediate movement, I thought it was necessary to send a signal to our institutions of higher learning that they need to come up with policies to prevent this in the future so it doesn’t risk harm to our law enforcement officers or student-athletes or fans,” Williams told ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg.
NCAA president Charlie Baker told ESPN’s Dan Murphy flag planting is an issue the NCAA plans to address.
“I think the conferences are pretty serious, and so are the schools about taking a look at how they might create a more aggressive approach to dealing with that,” Baker said.
Whether that’s lip service to weather the moment or leads to meaningful change remains to be seen.
The melee following the Michigan-Ohio State game cost both teams a $100,000 fine from the Big Ten, a figure former Alabama coach Nick Saban made light of on ESPN’s “College GameDay.”
“I think to fine these schools $100K is worrying about mouse manure when you’re up to your ears in elephant s—,” Saban said.
OHIO STATE WILL host Tennessee on Saturday, and is one of four teams, along with Texas, Penn State and Notre Dame, that will play at home this week as the College Football Playoff arrives on campuses for the first time.
After the Buckeyes were conquered at home by Michigan, it’s fair to question if there will be lingering frustration from the events that marred the finish. Winning should be incentive enough, but the thought of losing at home, again, could also be a powerful motivator.
Especially since it would still be legal in the state of Ohio for Tennessee to celebrate the way Michigan did.
Most of the coaches whose teams were involved in the rivalry-week flag-planting games came out against it in the immediate aftermath — both the act itself and the retaliations — so the possibility of repeat performances seems unlikely.
Florida coach Billy Napier apologized “on behalf of the entire organization” for how his team represented the university.
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney called the incidents “a bad look for college football.”
Ohio State coach Ryan Day and Michigan’s Moore, however, mostly shrugged off what happened at The Horseshoe as the by-product of an emotional game.
And if there was any doubt Moore didn’t feel like his team’s actions were out of line, he erased it at a basketball game against Iowa on Dec. 7. When he appeared on the jumbotron in the arena, Moore fired up the crowd by pretending to plant a flag.
Sherrone Moore hypes up the faithful Michigan crowd and emphatically plants an imaginary flag.
The crowd liked it, to say the least. pic.twitter.com/xbakn2pxsn
— Brock Heilig (@brockheilig) December 7, 2024
It was after a NBA game last week where perhaps the best solution for the whole issue was delivered after Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young celebrated a win in a similar fashion. As Young dribbled out the clock against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden, he mock-rolled dice on the Knicks logo.
While some fans were outraged, Knicks star Jalen Brunson had a different response: “We should win the game if we don’t want him to do that.”
The first day of the 2025 MLB draft is complete! The Washington Nationals selected Eli Willits with the No. 1 pick, opting for the prep shortstop — who might be more likely to sign below slot — in a draft with no clear-cut top prospect. And there were plenty of other intriguing selections as the first three rounds unfolded Sunday night.
The Seattle Mariners had to have been thrilled to have Kiley McDaniel’s No. 1-ranked prospect, Kade Anderson, fall to them at No. 3, and Ethan Holliday was selected at No. 4 by his famous father’s former squad the Colorado Rockies.
We asked ESPN baseball insiders Alden Gonzalez, Jesse Rogers and David Schoenfield to break down their favorite and most head-scratching moves of the draft’s first night, as well as to predict which players will bring the most to their new teams in the long term.
A lot of us were thrown for a loop by the first two selections. What do you make of the Nationals taking Ethan Willits at No. 1 and the Angels picking Tyler Bremner at No. 2?
Gonzalez: I was stunned on both accounts. Though there was definitely some uncertainty around the Nationals’ approach, especially since the firing of GM Mike Rizzo, I didn’t see anybody, anywhere, projecting Willits to be their choice at No. 1 overall. But the Angels drafting Bremner was an even bigger risk. Kiley had him 18th in his latest ranking. Six pitchers were ranked ahead of him. But Bremner might be someone who can rise and impact their major league roster quickly, and the Angels are always looking for that.
Rogers: The first two picks really summed up the uncertainty of the entire draft. The Nationals’ faith in a 17-year-old will be tested over the coming years, but the pick will likely save them some money for later in this draft and give Willits time to grow. The same can be said of many of the top picks: They’re going to need time. There are far fewer sure things this year — though Bremner could be the exception. The Angles love to graduate their players quickly, and as a college arm, he could see the majors sooner rather than later. Like Willits, this could also be a cost-saving move for later spending.
Schoenfield: In a draft that not only lacked a sure-thing No. 1 overall pick but was viewed as weaker at the top than those of recent years, it’s perhaps not a huge surprise that the Nationals and Angels used their picks to strike likely underslot deals with Willits and Bremner, giving them money to spend later in the draft — which they can use on high school prospects who might have slipped, trying to buy them out from going to college. It’s a strategy teams have used with success over the years, so the drafts for the Nationals and Angels will have to be viewed in their totality and not just focused on these two players.
What was your favorite pick of the night — and which one had you scratching your head?
Gonzalez: The Rockies have done a lot of things wrong over these last few … uh, decades. But it was really cool to see them take Ethan Holliday at No. 4 after his father, Matt, starred in Colorado for so long. Outside of the top two picks, Ethan Conrad going 17th to the Cubs was my biggest surprise of the night. Kiley had him ranked 30th; others had him falling out of the first round entirely. There’s uncertainty coming off shoulder surgery. But Conrad, 21, put up a 1.238 OPS in 97 plate appearances before his season ended prematurely in March. And the dearth of college bats probably influenced a slight reach here.
Rogers: I’m loving Billy Carlson to the White Sox at No. 10. Though they lost 121 games last season, Chicago couldn’t pick higher than this spot per CBA rules — but the Sox might have gotten a top-five player. Carlson’s defense will play extremely well behind a sneaky good and young pitching staff that should keep the ball on the ground in the long term. Meanwhile, with the pick of the litter when it came to hitters — college outfielders and high school kids as well — the Pirates took a high school pitcher at No. 6. Seth Hernandez could be great, but they need hitting. A lot of it.
Schoenfield: The Mariners reportedly wanted LSU left-hander Kade Anderson all along, but they certainly couldn’t have been expecting to get him with the third pick. (Keep in mind that the Mariners were lucky in the first place to land the third pick in the lottery, so they added some good fortune on top of good luck.) They get the most polished college pitcher in the draft, one who should move quickly — and perhaps make it a little easier for Jerry Dipoto to dip into his farm system and upgrade the big league roster at the trade deadline. Even though I understand why the Angels did it, Bremner still seems a little questionable. With the second pick, you want to go for a home run, and the consensus is that Holliday or even Anderson is more likely to be a more impactful major leaguer. Bremner’s lack of a third plus pitch is an issue, and you have to wonder if the Angels are relying too much on his control — which, yes, should allow him to get to the majors — and ignoring the possible lack of upside.
Who is the one player you’d like to plant your flag on as the biggest steal of this draft?
Gonzalez: Seth Hernandez, who went sixth to the Pirates and should someday share a rotation with Paul Skenes and Jared Jones. High school pitchers are incredibly risky, especially when taken so early in the draft. But Hernandez is a great athlete who already throws hard, boasts a plus changeup and showed improvement with his breaking ball this spring. He’ll go the Hunter Greene route, from standout high school pitcher to major league ace.
Rogers: Jamie Arnold will look like a steal at No. 11, especially when he debuts in the majors well before many of the players taken around him. I’m not worried about the innings drop in 2025 — not when he was striking out 119 hitters and walking just 27. The A’s need to polish him up but will be pleased by how consistent he’ll be. You can’t go wrong with a college lefty from an ACC school — at least, the A’s didn’t.
Schoenfield: I’m going with Billy Carlson with the 10th pick — with the admitted caveat that the White Sox haven’t exactly been stellar at developing hitters. But Carlson looks like an elite defensive shortstop with plus power, and that alone can make him a valuable major leaguer. If the hit tool comes along, we’re looking at a potential star. OK, he’s Bobby Witt Jr. lite? That’s still an All-Star player.
What’s your biggest takeaway from Day 1 of this draft?
Gonzalez: The Nationals throwing a wrench into the proceedings by selecting Willits. It was a surprising choice, but in their minds an easy one. Interim general manager Mike DeBartolo called Willits the best hitter and best fielder available. And in a draft devoid of can’t-miss, high-impact talent, Willits is no doubt a solid pick — a polished hitter who should stick at shortstop and might consistently hit 20 homers and steal 20 bases at a premium position. He also might come under slot, allowing flexibility later in the draft. But his selection is what allowed Anderson to reach the Mariners at No. 3 and prompted the Rockies to draft Holliday at No. 4, among other dominoes. It set a really interesting tone.
Rogers: Things change quickly in baseball. Whereas college hitters are usually the safest bets early in the draft, this year high school position players dominated. (And they all play shortstop, at least for now.) Athleticism has returned to baseball, and draft rooms are acting accordingly.
Schoenfield: I’m agreeing with Jesse. The selection of that many prep shortstops stood out — and they all seem to hit left-handed and run well, and some of them have big power potential and a cannon for an arm. Look, the hit tool is the most important and the hardest to scout and project, so not all these kids are going to make it, but their potential is exciting and, to Jesse’s point, their wide range of tools is showing that baseball is still drawing top athletes to the sport.
The 2025 MLB All-Star Home Run Derby is fast approaching — and the field is set.
Braves hometown hero Ronald Acuna Jr. became the first player to commit to the event, which will be held at Truist Park in Atlanta on July 14 (8 p.m. ET on ESPN). He was followed by MLB home run leader Cal Raleigh of the Seattle Mariners, James Wood of the Washington Nationals, Byron Buxton of the Minnesota Twins, Oneil Cruz of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Junior Caminero of the Tampa Bay Rays, Brent Rooker of the Athletics and Jazz Chisholm Jr. of the New York Yankees.
On Friday, however, Acuna was replaced by teammate Matt Olson.
With all the entrants announced, let’s break down their chances at taking home this year’s Derby prize.
Full All-Star Game coverage: How to watch, schedule, rosters, more
2025 home runs: 17 | Longest: 434 feet
Why he could win: Olson is a late replacement for Acuna as the home team’s representative at this year’s Derby. Apart from being the Braves’ first baseman, however, Olson also was born in Atlanta and grew up a Braves fan, giving him some extra motivation. The left-handed slugger led the majors in home runs in 2023 — his 54 round-trippers that season also set a franchise record — and he remains among the best in the game when it comes to exit velo and hard-hit rate.
Why he might not: The home-field advantage can also be a detriment if a player gets too hyped up in the first round. See Julio Rodriguez in Seattle in 2023, when he had a monster first round, with 41 home runs, but then tired out in the second round.
2025 home runs: 36 | Longest: 440 feet
Why he could win: It’s the season of Cal! The Mariners’ catcher is having one of the greatest slugging first halves in MLB history, as he’s been crushing mistakes all season . His easy raw power might be tailor-made for the Derby — he ranks in the 87th percentile in average exit velocity and delivers the ball, on average, at the optimal home run launch angle of 23 degrees. His calm demeanor might also be perfect for the contest as he won’t get too amped up.
Why he might not: He’s a catcher — and one who has carried a heavy workload, playing in all but one game this season. This contest is as much about stamina as anything, and whether Raleigh can carry his power through three rounds would be a concern. No catcher has ever won the Derby, with only Ivan Rodriguez back in 2005 even reaching the finals.
2025 home runs: 24 | Longest: 451 feet
Why he could win: He’s big, he’s strong, he’s young, he’s awesome, he might or might not be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. This is the perfect opportunity for Wood to show his talent on the national stage, and he wouldn’t be the first young player to star in the Derby. He ranks in the 97th percentile in average exit velocity and 99th percentile in hard-hit rate, so he can still muscle the ball out in BP even if he slightly mishits it. His long arms might be viewed as a detriment, but remember the similarly tall Aaron Judge won in 2017.
Why he might not: His natural swing isn’t a pure uppercut — he has a pretty low average launch angle of just 6.2 degrees — so we’ll see how that plays in a rapid-fire session. In real games, his power is primarily to the opposite field, but in a Home Run Derby you can get more cheapies pulling the ball down the line.
2025 home runs: 20 | Longest: 479 feet
Why he could win: Buxton’s raw power remains as impressive as nearly any hitter in the game. He crushed a 479-foot home run earlier this season and has four others of at least 425 feet. Indeed, his “no doubter” percentage — home runs that would be out of all 30 parks based on distance — is 75%, the highest in the majors among players with more than a dozen home runs. His bat speed ranks in the 89th percentile. In other words, two tools that could translate to a BP lightning show.
Why he might not: Buxton is 31 and the Home Run Derby feels a little more like a younger man’s competition. Teoscar Hernandez did win last year at age 31, but before that, the last winner older than 29 was David Ortiz in 2010, and that was under much different rules than are used now.
2025 home runs: 16 | Longest: 463 feet
Why he could win: If you drew up a short list of players everyone wants to see in the Home Run Derby, Cruz would be near the top. He has the hardest-hit ball of the 2025 season, and the hardest ever tracked by Statcast, a 432-foot missile of a home run with an exit velocity of 122.9 mph. He also crushed a 463-foot home run in Anaheim that soared way beyond the trees in center field. With his elite bat speed — 100th percentile — Cruz has the ability to awe the crowd with a potentially all-time performance.
Why he might not: Like all first-time contestants, can he stay within himself and not get too caught up in the moment? He has a long swing, which will result in some huge blasts, but might not be the most efficient for a contest like this one, where the more swings a hitter can get in before the clock expires, the better.
2025 home runs: 23 | Longest: 425 feet
Why he could win: Although Caminero was one of the most hyped prospects entering 2024, everyone kind of forgot about him heading into this season since he didn’t immediately rip apart the majors as a rookie. In his first full season, however, he has showed off his big-time raw power — giving him a chance to become just the third player to reach 40 home runs in his age-21 season. He has perhaps the quickest bat in the majors, ranking in the 100th percentile in bat speed, and his top exit velocity ranks in the top 15. That could translate to a barrage of home runs.
Why he might not: In game action, Caminero does hit the ball on the ground quite often — in fact, he’s on pace to break Jim Rice’s record for double plays grounded into in a season. If he gets out of rhythm, that could lead to a lot of low line drives during the Derby instead of fly balls that clear the fences.
2025 home runs: 19 | Longest: 440 feet
Why he could win: The Athletics slugger has been one of the top power hitters in the majors for three seasons now and is on his way to a third straight 30-homer season. Rooker has plus bat speed and raw power, but his biggest strength is an optimal average launch angle (19 degrees in 2024, 15 degrees this season) that translates to home runs in game action. That natural swing could be picture perfect for the Home Run Derby. He also wasn’t shy about saying he wanted to participate — and maybe that bodes well for his chances.
Why he might not: Rooker might not have quite the same raw power as some of the other competitors, as he has just one home run longer than 425 feet in 2025. But that’s a little nitpicky, as 11 of his home runs have still gone 400-plus feet. He competed in the college home run derby in Omaha while at Mississippi State in 2016 and finished fourth.
2025 home runs: 17 | Longest: 442 feet
Why he could win: Chisholm might not be the most obvious name to participate, given his career high of 24 home runs, but he has belted 17 already in 2025 in his first 61 games after missing some time with an injury. He ranks among the MLB leaders in a couple of home run-related categories, ranking in the 96th percentile in expected slugging percentage and 98th percentile in barrel rate. His raw power might not match that of the other participants, but he’s a dead-pull hitter who has increased his launch angle this season, which might translate well to the Derby, even if he won’t be the guy hitting the longest home runs.
Why he might not: Most of the guys who have won this have been big, powerful sluggers. Chisholm is listed at 5-foot-11, 184 pounds, and you have to go back to Miguel Tejada in 2004 to find the last player under 6 foot to win.
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