Bryce Harper wants MLB to let Home Run Derby participants use metal bats during the bonus round

Bryce Harper proposed an idea on Friday to let hitters use aluminum bats when the gold balls come into play during Monday night’s Home Run Derby at Citizens Bank Park. I don’t hate it, but I need our guy to think about what he’s suggesting for approximately five seconds before the league actually considers it.

Has Bryce Harper lost his damn mind?

Bryce Harper wants MLB to let Home Run Derby participants use metal bats during the bonus round, per @Buster_ESPN pic.twitter.com/QhCE5JQqSL

— Talkin' Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) July 10, 2026

Kyle Schwarber hitting a baseball with an aluminum bat in a Derby format would produce exit velocities that turn the outfield seats into a war zone and anyone sitting in the first 20 rows of left field would need to sign a liability waiver before the first swing.

Schwarber already hit two homers to the same section of the upper deck in the same inning against the Mets using a wooden bat and those balls traveled 456 and 457 feet at exit velocities that made the seats shake when they landed.

Now Harper wants to hand the man who leads the majors with 32 homers an aluminum bat and let him swing for the fences at Citizens Bank Park where the ball carries on summer nights and the stands are going to be packed with 43,000 fans who came to watch the Derby, not to dodge missiles coming off Schwarber’s bat at speeds that would make the baseballs eligible for a speeding ticket on I-95.

Personally, I know a pretty special gal sitting in the outfield for the Derby and she already thinks she can catch a home run ball. I have my doubts, obviously, but even that doesn’t matter anymore when we’re talking about aluminum bats where the exit velocities jump by 15-20 mph over wood.

The balls are coming off the barrel at speeds that professional outfielders would struggle to react to let alone a fan in Section 148 who is holding a beer in one hand and a phone in the other while a Schwarbomb at 125 mph is screaming toward their face at a trajectory that gives them approximately 0.3 seconds to decide between catching it and preserving their skeletal structure.

People will die. Limbs will be lost. The kids shagging balls in the outfield in their little Derby uniforms would be running for cover like South Philly was getting bombed because a baseball hit with an aluminum bat by a professional hitter who already generates 110-plus mph exit velocity with wood is not a souvenir opportunity, it’s a projectile that belongs in a military testing facility rather than a ballpark full of families who came to watch dingers and eat crab fries.

The Derby Will Be Fine Without Turning It Into a Public Safety Hazard

This year’s Derby features a new format with 20 swings in the first round, the top four advancing to semifinals with 15 swings each, and 15 swings in the finals to determine the champion.

The field includes Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber as Phillies teammates in the Derby at their own ballpark along with Ben Rice from the Yankees, Junior Caminero from the Rays, Jac Caglianone from the Royals who we all remember from the Little League homer sequence against the Mets, Willson Contreras from the Red Sox, Jordan Walker from the Cardinals, and an eighth participant who hasn’t been announced yet.

Bryce Harper won the Derby in 2018 with his dad Ron pitching to him when he beat Schwarber in the finals, and now the two of them are teammates competing in the Derby at their home ballpark with Schwarber leading the majors in homers and Harper swinging the heavy bat that has produced some of the best offensive numbers of his career over the last month.

The content is already going to be incredible without adding aluminum bats to the equation because watching Harper and Schwarber launch balls into the upper deck at Citizens Bank Park on a Monday night in July with the home crowd going insane after every swing is the kind of event that doesn’t need a gimmick to be the most entertaining night of the baseball summer.

The 20-swing format eliminates the timed element that made previous Derbies feel rushed and chaotic and replaces it with a set number of swings that lets each hitter settle into a rhythm and put on a show without worrying about a clock running out while they’re mid-swing.

That’s a better format for entertainment and a better format for the hitters, and the combination of the new rules, the home ballpark, and the Harper-Schwarber storyline is already generating more buzz for this Derby than any since Harper won it eight years ago.

But Hey, If Bryce Harper Wants to Get Crazy…

Look, I just said people will die and limbs will be lost and the outfield would need to be evacuated. All of that is true and all of that should be reason enough for MLB to reject the aluminum bat idea before it gets past the brainstorming phase.

Schwarber with an aluminum bat hitting gold balls at Citizens Bank Park on a July night would produce distances that we’ve never seen from a professional hitter because the man is already hitting balls 457 feet with wood and the aluminum advantage would push those drives into the 500-foot range where the upper deck isn’t a destination but a launching pad and the ball might legitimately leave the stadium entirely and land on Pattison Avenue where unsuspecting pedestrians would have to deal with baseballs raining from the sky like a biblical plague sent specifically to punish people who chose to walk past Citizens Bank Park during the Home Run Derby.

It’s a horrible idea that would endanger thousands of fans, traumatize the children shagging balls in the outfield, and turn the Derby into a liability nightmare that MLB’s insurance providers would never sign off on in a million years.

If Bryce Harper wants to get crazy, let’s get crazy because the man hasn’t had a bad idea all season and the entertainment value of watching these guys swing aluminum at a professional level would be worth every lawsuit that followed.

Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber in the Derby at the Bank on Monday night. Wooden bats only, please, for the safety of everyone involved.

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