Red Sox's Mookie Betts: It's time to dump the Home Run Derby

by Felix Pantaleón

The 2018 MLB Home Run Derby will be Monday, July 16, 2018 (7/16/18) at Nationals Park in Washington DC. Aaron Judge won the Derby in 2017. But he and Yankees teammate Giancarlo Stanton are passing on the Derby in 2018. So are Boston Red Sox sluggers Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez, as well as Los Angeles Angels center fielder Mike Trout.

Yankees sluggers Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton are passing on the 2018 Home Run Derby. So is the Red Sox duo of Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez. Mike Trout, the best player on the planet? He’s out too.

Instead, fans will settle in to watch the likes of Dodgers slugger Max Muncy.

Never mind that Judge is the defending Home Run Derby champion and that Stanton led the majors with 59 home runs in 2017. Ignore the fact that Martinez, Trout, and Judge are 1-2-3 among American League home run leaders.

Yes, the 2018 Derby will be lacking some star power.

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But Betts, who will start for the American League and is sitting on 22 home runs this season, has a revolutionary idea: get rid of the Home Run Derby altogether and replace it with a skills competition, per WEEI:

“Do something else, or take it out. Don’t even do it,” Betts said when asked about the HR Derby. The American League All-Starter added, “Anything you do too much, people are going to get tired of it.”

…

The entire notion of having a skills competition opens the door for all kinds of ideas, such as another Betts thought of.

“Something like a throwing from the outfield contest. Some type of throwing contest,” he said. “Trying to throw into a barrel or infielders have to take a ground ball to your left, ground ball to your right, slow roller and they have to throw into a screen with a box. That might be something.”

Betts, by the way, leads the majors with a .344 batting average this season for the Red Sox, who own a 2.5 game lead over the Yankees in the American League East.

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