Atlanta’s All-Star first basemen will be in the center of the spotlight tonight as he swings with the best that MLB has to offer.
25 years after he was in attendance at Turner Field for the 2000 MLB Home Run Derby, Matt Olson will attempt to defend his home ballpark from some of the biggest home run hitters in all the land — including current MLB home run leader Cal Raleigh.
This will be Olson’s first time participating in the event (after making the All-Star team in 2021 as a member of the A’s and in 2023 with his current team, our Atlanta Braves) and as you can imagine, the guy is very excited to be doing this not just for the local team but for his hometown team as well — Olson is from here (Brookhaven, to be precise) and it’s pretty safe to imagine that a lot of his local friends and family will be on hand to witness him attempt to crush as many dingers as he possibly can later this evening.
As far as his chances ago, it appears that Olson is coming into this as a bit of a longshot when it comes to the favored contenders in this one. Obviously, “Big Dumper” himself Cal Raleigh is the favorite — he’s coming into this competition having hit a scarcely-believable 38 homers before the break. To put Raleigh’s penchant for the long ball into perspective, the 38 dingers was only one off of tying Barry Bonds for the midseason home run record at 39 back during that historic 2001 season of his. Our friends over at FanGraphs are giving Raleigh +290 odds of coming out on top during the Derby, with Matt Olson’s odds coming in at seventh-best at +1000.
Still, I’d underestimate Olson at your own peril. Olson has consistently been one of baseball’s leaders in Hard Hit percentage — as we head into the Break, Olson is currently tied for 10th in all of baseball with a Hard Hit percentage of 54.4 percent. He’s also no slouch in the Barrel department either, as Olson is currently 12th among all qualified hitters when it comes to Barrel percentage at 16.7 percent. Plus, this is his home ballpark and it wasn’t all that long ago when Olson unleashed a 54-homer season in 2023. He’s swinging the bat just as hard as ever and he’ll be in his own ballpark, so those are factors that could lead to Olson pulling off the upset in front of his home fans.
That word “home” keeps on coming up because it’s certainly relevant to Olson’s quest to taking home the trophy tonight. Olson talked to MLB.com’s Mark Bowman about the situation and it’s very clear that he’s excited to represent both his hometown team and his hometown in general.
“Just being able to know what to expect is good,” Olson said. “And obviously taking a lot of at-bats at Truist, it should be pretty comfortable.”
Olson can’t wait to put on a show in his hometown.
“It makes it 10 times better,” Olson said. “It’s something you dream about doing, and being a little kid and I went to the last Home Run Derby in Atlanta. I had visions of doing it myself, so to be able to get the chance, I thank Ronald [Acuña Jr.]”
The rest of the field does indeed figure to be pretty stacked. Very few people hit the ball harder and further on a near-regular basis than Oneil Cruz, young hitters like James Wood and Junior Caminero have been exploding onto the scene with their power-hitting displays and Brent Rooker has developed into one of the most interesting sluggers in the game at the moment.
Additionally, Byron Buxton has certainly got plenty of pop in his bat and Jazz Chisholm Jr. routinely finds the Barrel of the bat with his hits as well. I’ve said enough about Big Dumper but it does bear repeating that this man has 38 runs before the Break! This is going to be an exciting event with a pretty intriguing field but Matt Olson clearly belongs to be in this power-hitting pod.
We don’t have to wait too much longer between now and the Derby. The Braves are going to have some decent representation during this event and hopefully we’ll see Matt Olson put his stamp on things by pulling off a huge win during this evening’s Home Run Derby.
Home Run Derby Info
Event Date/Time: Monday, July 14, 8:00 p.m. EDT
Location: Truist Park, Atlanta, GA
TV: ESPN
Streaming: ESPN
Radio: SiriusXM