2 best and 2 worst Rangers performances in MLB Home Run Derby history

Over the last 50 years of the MLB Home Run Derby, we have seen plenty of mind-blowing and can't wait to forget this type moments and the Texas Rangers have been around long enough to be part of both.

With the 2025 MLB Home Run Derby set for Monday evening at Truist Park in Atlanta, Georgia, let's take a look back at some of the best and worst derby moments in among Rangers' players.

2 best Texas Rangers Home Run Derby performances

Josh Hamilton, 2008

Perhaps the best home run derby performance in the history of the competition, Josh Hamilton put on a show in old Yankees Stadium during the 2008 Midsummer Classic. So much so that people even tend to forget that the left-handed slugger didn't even win the contest.

At the time, Hamilton was a perennial MVP candidate (winning the award two years later) and on top of that was one of the best comeback stories in Major League Baseball. Hamilton would wow fans with 28 first-round home runs, which at the time was the record for homers in a single round. He added extra impressive feat to it, homering on 13 straight swings.

Although Hamilton eventually lost in the final round to Minnesota's Justin Morneau in the final round, the outfielder left a long-lasting impression on the premier event of the All-Star week, that still resurfaces year-after-year.

Juan Gonzalez, 1993

Back in the 1993 derby at Camden Yards in Baltimore, Rangers' outfielder Juan Gonzalez and Mariner's outfielder Ken Griffey Jr. went head-to-head in a final round contest that

In the final, Gonzalez and Griffey tied with seven homers, forcing a much-beloved overtime round. They then proceeded to tie again with four, forcing another bonus round, which Gonzalez eventually won.

This derby is mostly remembered for Griffey's towering shot in the final bonus round that hit off B&O Warehouse beyond the stadium's fencing in right field. That 465-foot towering shot is perhaps the most recognizable homer in the history of the derby but Gonzalez was the one that walked away with the hardware.

2 worst Rangers' Home Run Derby performances

Joey Gallo, 2021

Seems unfair to call the Gallo performance at Coors Field one of the worst but it was easily one of the most forgettable despite the last-second drama in his one round against then Rockie Trevor Story.

After Story hit 20 homers in the opening round, the former Rangers' slugger stepped to the plate with a spattering of boo's that filled the stands of the mile high ballpark. Gallo would go on to hit 19 homers and his last homer almost tied the round but was ruled to be after time had expired.

It was one of the final moments that Rangers' fan got with Gallo in a Texas jersey as he was traded a few weeks later to the New York Yankees in exchange for a propsect haul that netted the Rangers Ezequiel Duran and Josh Smith.

Prince Fielder, 2015

Fielder is another not worst but more dissapointing performance as he failed to get out of the first-round with only 13 longballs. Which if anyone ever saw Fielder hit a baseball, 13 was very uncharacteristic of the slugger.

Held at Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati, Fielder lost in that round to eventual winner and host team rep Todd Frazier, who would go on to win the whole competition. Thankfully Prince didn't end up being the hitter with the least homers as that title went to Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo.

It's fair to say the expectations among the baseball world was that Fielder would put on a spectacle of a show given his win in 2009 and reputation for moonshot homers.

A year later in 2016, Fielder was diagnosed with C4-C5 herniations which eventually led to the end of his baseball playing career. He was a five-time All-Star and ended his career with the same number of career homers as his father Cecil Fielder (319).