The Best Swing-Off Players For All 30 MLB Teams
The 2025 MLB All-Star Game ended with a first – the swing-off. It was a mini home run derby to determine a winner rather than go to extra innings to break a tie, and it was perfect television.
Whether the swing-off becomes the norm in the regular season someday, in some way, is unknown, but that doesn’t stop us from dreaming a little. To participate in a swing-off, a team has to select three players who will get three swings each. So that’s what we’ve done for all 30 teams, listed below one division at a time.
Remember: the best players for a swing-off might not be the best hitters overall, but the ones that have the greatest chance of going yard the most times in what are Home Run Derby-esque conditions. Meaning, a controlled batting practice environment designed for dingers. Each team gets to select three coaches to throw to hitters, so, a mix of lefties and righties to exploit platoon splits is key.
AL East
Lineup: Gunnar Henderson, Ryan O’Hearn, Tyler O’Neill
Gunnar Henderson is an obvious pick, as the O’s shortstop is a great hitter even in a down year, and hit 37 homers in 2024. Ryan O’Hearn didn’t hit for much power until he got to Baltimore in 2023, but has gone yard 40 times in 336 games since. Not a ton, no, but let him face some right-handed batting practice, and his long ball chances go up: 73 of his 78 career homers have been hit off of righties. Tyler O’Neill has been a disaster free agent signing for the Orioles, but he’s a .526 career slugger against southpaws, so, feed him a lefty.
Lineup: Wilyer Abreu, Alex Bregman, Roman Anthony
There would have been a spot locked down for Rafael Devers here before Boston traded him to the Giants, but there are still options even without him. Wilyer Abreu has seen his power grow in 2025, as his 18 homers in the first half surpass his 15 rookie dingers. Alex Bregman is more of a doubles guy these days, but against batting practice pitching, he’d surely find that home run stroke once more. And while Roman Anthony is a rookie, the swing-off isn’t against MLB pitchers. He can hit a baseball really far, as he showed in last summer’s Futures Skills Showcase.
Lineup: Aaron Judge, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Giancarlo Stanton
Aaron Judge is Aaron Judge. The best hitter in the game, but also its most powerful one – easy pick. Jazz Chisholm Jr. might have gone yard just three times in the 2025 Home Run Derby, but he got to participate in the first place for a reason. He deserves a second chance to show just how much pop is in his swing. And Giancarlo Stanton’s best days might very well be behind him, but you know that he’d hit a few balls an eye-popping distance against coaches trying to give him pitches to demolish.
Aaron Judge is a great pick for three homers in three swings. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
Lineup: Junior Caminero, Brandon Lowe, Yandy Diaz
Junior Caminero just finished second in the 2025 Home Run Derby, and while he still has work to do on his swing given he’s 21 and still figuring things out, he also already has 23 homers. Brandon Lowe mashed 39 homers back in 2021, then 21 each of the last two partial seasons and is at 19 in 2025. Let Yandy Diaz face a lefty in the swing-off instead of a rightly – Diaz’s career line against lefties is .302/.386/.489 with 34 of his 99 homers in nearly 1,500 fewer plate appearances – and he’s bound to hit a couple of homers.
Toronto Blue Jays
Lineup: Vladimir Guerrero Jr., George Springer, Addison Barger
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was the 2023 Home Run Derby champion, and set a new record for the most home runs in the first and second rounds of the Derby four years prior. George Springer is hitting for power again, so he’s an easy add; plus, you have to save a space for the eventual home run king of Connecticut. As for Addison Barger, he’s not the automatic choice that either Guerrero Jr. or Springer were, but in 134 career games against right-handers, he’s hit 19 of his 20 home runs. Keep him away from a southpaw, and he’ll go deep at least once.
NL East
Lineup: Matt Olson, Ronald Acuna Jr., Marcell Ozuna
Matt Olson led the majors in home runs with 54 in 2023, and while he’s never displayed quite that level of power again, he’s also hit over 30 homers on four total occasions, and 29 twice. (Olson went deep 14 times in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, a 38-homer pace.) Ronald Acuna Jr. is capable of serious power when he’s healthy, like in 2023 when he mashed 41 dingers, and he has 12 in just 45 games in 2025. Marcell Ozuna led the majors in homers in 2020 with 18, hit another 30 combined between his shortened 2021 and 2022 seasons, then 40 and 39 in 2023 and 2024, respectively. It’s his spot to lose even in a tougher 2025.
Lineup: Kyle Stowers, Agustin Ramirez, Jesus Sanchez
Kyle Stowers never hit for power before 2025 — across three seasons and 117 games, he hit all of six homers. He had more pop in the minors, though, and seems to have settled in enough in the majors to find it once more: Stowers has 19 homers in 91 games this summer. Agustin Ramirez might be a rookie without much of a track record, but he also has 14 bombs in less than half-a-season of work. Jesus Sanchez is not an inspiring third choice, no, but look at the rest of the Marlins’ lineup, then settle for having him face a righty he might go deep against.
Lineup: Juan Soto, Pete Alonso, Francisco Lindor
The Mets make it easy. Juan Soto? Well, he’s literally Juan Soto. That’s a head start over most players who are not Juan Soto. Even when other parts of Pete Alonso’s game don’t work like they should, be they his batting average cratering or his sometimes playing first base like he’s a DH, he’s got his power. He hit an MLB-leading 53 homers in his rookie 2019. He’s hit between 34 and 46 every season since (besides 2020, when he crushed 16 in 60 games, a 43-homer pace), and has 21 through the All-Star break in 2025. Francisco Lindor has seen his power fluctuate on occasion, but he’s routinely good for around 30 homers, and would hit like it in competitive BP.
Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto would have plenty to celebrate after teaming up for a swing-off. (Photo by Keith Gillett/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Lineup: Kyle Schwarber, Nick Castellanos, Bryce Harper
Kyle Schwarber won the swing-off for the NL in this year’s All-Star Game, but even without that he’d be an easy pick. Schwarber has 314 career homers in what amounts to nine seasons’ worth of games in the majors, led the NL in 2022 with 46, hit one more than that in 2023, and already has 30 at the break this year. Letting Nick Castellanos try to hit a bunch of home runs in a row might be a terrible omen for the world, sure, but he still has the power to have earned this spot. Bryce Harper recovered from a bit of a power drought to hit 30 in 2024, and has been limited to 10 in 2025 due to missing time more than his actual performance.
Lineup: James Wood, CJ Abrams, Nathaniel Lowe
The Nationals traded Juan Soto years ago, and they lost Bryce Harper well before that, but they’ve got yet another young, powerful phenom to step in here as their ace in James Wood. In his first full year in the majors, Wood has already participated in a Home Run Derby and gone deep 23 times. CJ Abrams doesn’t have Wood’s elite power, no, but his is plenty above-average enough to do damage in a swing-off. The last pick is nowhere near as obvious of one to make: Nathaniel Lowe bashed 27 homers back in 2022 with the Texas Rangers, but that looks more and more like a one-off as time goes by. Then again, he is at 14 homers this year already, so maybe he’s finally making that long-awaited sequel.
AL Central
Lineup: Andrew Benintendi, Miguel Vargas, Luis Robert Jr.
As you would expect from a team set to lose well over 100 games yet again, there isn’t a lot to choose from here. Andrew Benintendi wasn’t an exceptionally powerful hitter even at his peak, but he’ll have to hold down the fort. Miguel Vargas isn’t a power hitter, either, but he’s the only other White Sox player to reach double-digits in 2025, and one of the only ones who could maybe hit 20 over a full season. Luis Robert Jr. should be an obvious pick, given he hit 38 homers back in 2023, but he’s slugged a collective .357 since. Maybe the swing-off would be a place for him to contribute, though.
Cleveland Guardians
Lineup: Jose Ramirez, Carlos Santana, Bo Naylor
Jose Ramirez is probably going to retire as the greatest player in Cleveland’s history, and you can say something like that in 2025 because of how incredible he still is — he missed becoming the seventh 40 homer, 40 steals player ever by one home run in 2024. Carlos Santana’s best homer days are in his past, but the 39-year-old can still let it rip on occasion, especially in this format. Bo Naylor’s problem is making contact. He’s a career .200 hitter… with a career .177 Isolated Power. Over 21% of his career hits are home runs: sign him up, and against a righty for some extra pop.
Lineup: Riley Green, Spencer Torkelson, Kerry Carpenter
Riley Greene hit 24 homers a year ago, and already has 24 in 2025. He might sell out for power in a way that makes him strike out in regulation, but here? It’s going to be dingers for days. Spencer Torkelson’s issue is contact, but the .224 career batter would face pitchers who are trying to get him to hit home runs, so his excellent power will show through here even more than against MLB pitching. And Kerry Carpenter has 60 homers in just about two seasons’ worth of MLB games, while slugging .540 against right-handers in 975 plate appearances.
Both Riley Greene and Spencer Torkelson would be dangerous in the swing-off format. (Photo by Duane Burleson/Getty Images)
Lineup: Bobby Witt Jr., Salvador Perez, Jac Caglianone
Bobby Witt Jr. has hit over 30 homers in consecutive seasons, and might reach that mark again in 2025 after his power started to climb with the temperature. Salvador Perez is the single-season record holder for homers by a catcher with 48, which also led the entire majors in 2021. He doesn’t have that power most of the time, no, but facing off against some coaches tossing meatballs down the middle is a sure way for Perez to tap into what he used to be able to do. Jac Caglianone might be a rookie with just four homers to his name in the bigs, but we know the power is there: he hit 33 amateur homers with Florida in 2023, another 35 in 2024, then 17 in just 79 minor-league games before his promotion.
Lineup: Byron Buxton, Kody Clemens, Matt Wallner
Byron Buxton is the obvious pick, a star when he’s healthy who has the power to prove it. Kody Clemens struggled to settle in with the Tigers or Phillies, but since the Twins acquired him, he’s at least shown some pop with 12 homers in 55 games. Making contact is an issue for Clemens, but against a batting practice fastball, that shouldn’t be an issue for the 29-year-old. Matt Wallner is a career .239 hitter, but one with 33 homers in 636 plate appearances against righties. A perfect pick for this format, even if he has limitations in the first nine innings.
NL Central
Lineup: Pete Crow-Armstrong, Seiya Suzuki, Kyle Tucker
This would have been much more difficult to answer a year ago, but then Pete Crow-Armstrong decided to break out with some mammoth shots, Seiya Suzuki massively upgraded his power output and already has a career-high in homers because of it, while Kyle Tucker was acquired from the Astros and has just been Kyle Tucker. Which is to say, someone with plenty of power both for a standard game, and for something like this where you hit as many as you can in three swings.
Cincinnati Reds
Lineup: Elly De La Cruz, Spencer Steer, Matt McLain
Elly De La Cruz just keeps on improving — his 2025 season might also be his first-ever 30-homer campaign, at the age of 23. His problem has been strikeouts, but that won’t come up in a swing-off. Spencer Steer doesn’t have De La Cruz’s power, but he hit 23 homers in 2023 and another 20 in 2024 before popping 11 in the first half of this season. As for Matt McClain, he missed his 2024 season due to shoulder surgery and hasn’t shaken off the rust just yet, but he is still hitting for power even with the contact issues. McClain has 26 homers in 176 career games.
Lineup: Christian Yelich, Jackson Chourio, Rhys Hoskins
Christian Yelich picked a fine time to decide to start hitting home runs again. Not just because his performance has helped the Brewers build a four-game lead in the NL wild card race, but also to make him an easy choice for this hypothetical. Jackson Chourio might be just 21 years old, but he’s already well on his way to passing his rookie total of 21 homers, as he has 16 in his first 95 games. Pitch selection and patience are not his strong suits in the majors yet, but the swing-off will erase those issues. Rhys Hoskins, too, is a historically low-average hitter — he’s batted .238 across eight years now — but he also carries a .238 Isolated Power. The swing-off was made for someone like Hoskins.
Rhys Hoskins is no stranger to the long ball. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images)
Lineup: Oneil Cruz, Bryan Reynolds, Andrew McCutchen
The Pirates have Oneil Cruz, so obviously the guy who has the two hardest-hit balls on record — as well as a 513-foot shot in the 2025 Home Run Derby — would get to take three swings to see how many long balls he could hit. Bryan Reynolds is an obvious choice in a less exuberant way, but he’s hit between 24 and 27 homers in each of the last four years, and the Pirates aren’t exactly growing offensive mainstays on trees. Andrew McCutchen isn’t a big power guy anymore, but he can still get a hold of one, especially if it’s going in a straight line in the 70s.
Lineup: Willson Contreras, Nolan Arenado, Alec Burleson
Willson Contreras has hit over 20 homers on five occasions in his career, and freed up from having to catch all the time in 2025, he’s got 12 through 91 games. Nolan Arenado is known much more for his defense than his bat, but that says more about the former than it does the latter: the 34-year-old has 351 career homers, and while his days of leading the NL ended when he exited Colorado, he’s still mashed 116 of them in four-plus seasons with the Cardinals. Alec Burleson is another guy who would benefit from a platoon matchup: 36 of his 41 homers are against righties.
AL West
Lineup: Brent Rooker, Tyler Soderstrom, Nick Kurtz
The Athletics give up a ton of runs, and that hides their own offensive capabilities a bit, but they’ve got some dangerous hitters. Brent Rooker was just in the Home Run Derby and participated in the swing-off, after hitting 30 and 39 homers the past two years. He’s at 20 so far in 2025. Tyler Soderstrom has 18 homers in 97 games, and 30 in his first 203. The 23-year-old’s low batting averages won’t matter in this format. Nick Kurtz, 2024 first-round pick, debuted in the majors already, and has hit 17 homers in his first 58 games. That’s not a surprise, either; his power is why he moved up so quickly.
Lineup: Isaac Paredes, Jose Altuve, Christian Walker
Isaac Paredes hit 31 homers for the Rays back in 2023, and while his 2024 followup wasn’t quite as good on the power front, his 2025 season is shaping up well with 19 homers already, matching last summer’s output. Jose Altuve became more of a power guy as he aged and his contact rates and averages dropped — at 17 homers already, he might hit 30 for the third time in his career. Christian Walker’s season isn’t going that well overall, but the beauty of this format is letting a guy with 30-plus homer power — which Walker has — swing as hard as he can at some pitches he can crush. And he can swing really hard.
Lineup: Mike Trout, Jo Adell, Logan O’Hoppe
There were some tougher choices to make here than you might think. Taylor Word is the team’s home run leader with 21, for instance, and is sure to set a career-high in 2025, but you can’t leave Mike Trout out — despite playing in just 70 games and starting poorly, he has 17 home runs, and is also Mike Trout. Jo Adell’s power is explosive, so you don’t want to skip out on him, and Logan O’Hoppe might have “just” 17 homers to Ward’s 21, but he’s a catcher, too, who has played in fewer games. And this is without getting into Zach Neto or Jorge Soler.
It’s true: he is Mike Trout. (Photo by Nicole Vasquez/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
Lineup: Cal Raleigh, Randy Arozarena, Julio Rodriguez
Obviously, Cal Raleigh is here. Even if he weren’t leading MLB in homers, even if he were “just” the Cal Raleigh of previous years, he’d be here: Big Dumper went deep 91 times in the last three seasons. Randy Arozarena’s home run totals don’t paint a realistic picture of his power: he averages about 20 per season, but they’re hit hard. And he does have 17 this year, setting him up for a likely career-high. Julio Rodriguez is a more well-rounded player than anything, but his power is legitimate enough for him to have entered, and succeeded in, the Home Run Derby.
Texas Rangers
Lineup: Corey Seager, Adolis Garcia, Jake Burger
Since coming to Texas, Corey Seager has gone from a guy with doubles power to a regular 30-homer player. He’s at 13 in 2025, but that’s due to missing time — he might still get there, anyway. Adolis Garcia’s last two seasons have been nothing to write home about, but if nothing else works in his game, his power still does, and he has the ISO figures and home run totals to prove it. Jake Burger is a less obvious choice than some more complete players, but set him up against a lefty in the swing-off, and watch him look like a completely different slugger: in 447 career plate appearances against lefties, Burger has 26 homers.
NL West
Lineup: Eugenio Suarez, Corbin Carroll, Ketel Marte
The Diamondbacks have no shortage of options, but these three are their premier power hitters. Suarez has history on his side, and is on pace for over 50 homers in 2025. Corbin Carroll is maybe more of a triples guy than a homers one — he led the NL in the former in 2023, the majors in 2024 and is leading the league again this summer — but against batting practice pitchers, it’s fair to wonder if those would go over the wall instead of off of it. Ketel Marte is a reliable source of homers over the last three seasons, and might even set a career high (again) in 2025, as he has 19 in just 68 games.
Lineup: Hunter Goodman, Ryan McMahon, Mickey Moniak
Say what you will about the Rockies’ offense — it is bad — but these three can hit a bit, at least. Hunter Goodman in any context, as he’s a monster for a catcher, and pretty good at this just in general even after adjusting for the Coors Field effect. Ryan McMahon is leading the National League in strikeouts, but as has been said, that does not matter in this format: he’s more liable to look superhuman than human in a swing-off. Mickey Moniak isn’t exciting, no, but he’s a career .453 slugger against right-handed pitching, with 42 homers against just 3 vs. lefties.
Lineup: Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Max Muncy
Shohei Ohtani is such an obvious pick that we don’t need to spend any more words explaining it. Freddie Freeman would be labeled a doubles hitter if you had to choose, especially since he got to Los Angeles, but a double in innings one through nine could very well be a home run coming out of the hand of a batting practice coach in the swing-off. Max Muncy has serious power, the kind that makes you recoil a little when you see it in action, and the swing-off would erase any of the concerns about contact or strikeouts that you’d normally have with him.
Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman are already a fearsome duo, even against pitchers trying to get them out. (Photo by Katelyn Mulcahy/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
Lineup: Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado, Jackson Merrill
The Padres might have some problems with homers historically, but not this roster, and not for the swing-off. Fernando Tatis Jr. has jaw-dropping power: he led the NL with 42 in 2021, and while his totals have dropped in the years since, when he gets a hold of one, it’s a no doubter. Manny Machado might end up with 500 homers in his career, and he still hits like that’s possible, too. Jackson Merrill has seen a bit of a power outage in 2025, but he bashed 24 as a rookie and is all of 22. That pop is there, and would be accessible in the swing-off.
Lineup: Heliot Ramos, Matt Chapman, Mike Yastrzemski
Oracle Park hides the power of the Giants’ lineup, but this trio can go yard when needed in a swing-off. Heliot Ramos hit 22 homers in 2024 — again, despite playing in the second-worst park for homers in the majors — and is at 14 in 2025. Matt Chapman hit 27 homers last summer, the third time he’s hit that number, and has 194 in his career. Mike Yastrzemski can go yard with regularity so long as you keep him from lefties: he’s slugged .474 in his career against righties with 95 of his 114 home runs.
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