Get ready for a night full of fireworks in Atlanta as the 2025 Home Run Derby continues All-Star week on Monday night at Truist Park. DraftKings Sportsbook has a variety of markets available for the contest, including a fun one on the player to record the highest exit velocity on a derby home run.
The field for this year’s home run derby includes a very solid mix of veterans and younger players, with seven of the eight contestants making their Home Run Derby debut. Some of the players with the highest exit velocities in baseball are in the mix, so we should see plenty of balls flying off bats in Atlanta. While it isn’t exactly the same, a related market to this one is the longest home run hit, which is impacted by exit velocity but also influenced by launch angle and trajectory.
Here are the odds for the highest exit velocity market, followed by a couple of my favorite picks to top the exit velocity charts Monday in Atlanta.
Player to Record Highest Exit Velocity Derby HR – Oneil Cruz (+115)
Cruz is overwhelmingly the favorite in this field at just +115, but it’s hard to get past him since he has dominated this category throughout his time in the majors. He has the hardest-hit homer of the year with the hardest-hit ball in the Statcast era earlier this season against the Brewers.
That smash isn’t just a one-time occurrence, though, since he also has six of the 10 batted balls with an exit velocity of at least 120 mph since he made his debut in 2021. James Wood is second of the players in the field this year with a 117.9 exit velocity on one of his hits this season, but no other player in the field has a maximum exit velocity that ranks in the top 10.
Not only is Cruz’s maximum untouchable, but he also has the highest average exit velocity in the majors this season, and no one else in Monday’s field ranks in the top five. He has the third-highest hard-hit rate on the season, behind only Shohei Ohtani and Kyle Schwarber, who are not in the field for this year’s Derby.
While Cruz is chalky, he still comes at plus odds, which actually represents good value given his dominance in this category in recent years.
Player to Record Highest Exit Velocity Derby HR – Matt Olson (+1200)
If you want to be contrarian and go against the chalky pick with Cruz, Olson seems to be coming in a little under the radar in these odds. Olson was added to the field as a replacement for Ronald Acuna Jr., and he’ll be the home-field representative for the Braves.
He could get some extra adrenaline from playing at home, and he had this smash in Atlanta earlier this season that was 113.4 miles per hour.
That smash at 113.4 miles per hour is harder than any homer hit this year by Jazz Chisholm Jr., Byron Buxton, Brent Rooker, or Junior Caminero all season.
Olson has the second-highest average exit velocity in the field, behind only Cruz and just ahead of Wood. He also ranks in the top 12 in the majors this year in hard-hit rate, behind only Cruz, Wood and Buxton in this field.
He’s pretty far down the list in these odds, which means he represents great value at 12:1 if he is able to crush one like he has so often at Truist Park during the season.
