DENVER - Hunter Goodman has already made his case for the 2026 Home Run Derby, and he didn’t need much prodding to do it.
“I would like to do it,” he said. “If they want to ask me, I definitely want to do it.”
That answer fits the season he’s putting together for the Colorado Rockies. Goodman, who broke the franchise record for home runs by a catcher with 31 last year, is second in Major League Baseball this season with 27 homers.
The 26-year-old has kept right on rolling and looks like a strong bet to return to the All-Star Game for a second straight year. If that happens, he would be the first Rockie to make consecutive NL rosters since Nolan Arenado, Charlie Blackmon and Trevor Story all did it in 2019.
Goodman’s latest homer came Wednesday night in a 6-3 win over the Miami Marlins, a swing that moved him past Todd Helton for second place and tied him with Larry Walker for the most home runs in team history before the All-Star break.
“You look up out in right-center and you see their (retired) numbers and the Hall of Fame (ring), so anytime you’re mentioned with that caliber player, it’s pretty cool,” Goodman said of the club’s two Cooperstonians.
He’s also on pace for something even bigger. With a season that has him tracking toward 50 homers, Goodman is chasing the joint franchise record of 49 held by Walker and Helton.
The Derby conversation is already building around him. Kyle Schwarber of the Philadelphia Phillies, who leads the majors with 30 homers, feels like the obvious hometown draw for Citizens Bank Park on Monday, July 13. Goodman sounds like the next natural fit, and Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer is on board.
“Yeah, he’d be very entertaining,” Schaeffer said of Goodman. “He’d hit a lot of homers and he wouldn’t get tired out. He’s built like a machine.”
Colorado has been waiting a while for a Derby participant. Trevor Story was the last Rockie in the event, doing it in 2021 when Denver hosted.
Before that, Charlie Blackmon took part in 2017. In Philadelphia, the Rockies would be sending a familiar power bat back into the spotlight if Goodman gets the call.
The club’s history in the event is thin, but not empty. Over the 32 All-Star Games since Denver got a franchise in 1993, only 12 Colorado players have competed in the Home Run Derby.
Larry Walker did it in 1997 and 1999, and Carlos González took part in 2012 and 2016. On five occasions, a Rockies slugger has advanced out of the first round.
Goodman’s own numbers make the case loud and clear. He has 72 home runs in 318 games with Colorado, the second-most in franchise history for a primary catcher. June was especially loud: his 13 homers led the majors and ranked second in Rockies history for a calendar month behind Troy Tulowitzki’s 15 in September 2010.
That kind of power from a catcher is rare. Goodman became only the fourth catcher ever to hit 13 homers in a month, joining Ozzie Virgil, Gary Carter and Walker Cooper. All three of those players were All-Stars, and two received MVP votes in their respective seasons.
He closed June with a burst, homering five times in the final five games of the month. That included a three-homer night on June 27 in Minnesota, when he also had one last chance at a fourth.
“I was definitely thinking I want four,” Goodman admitted. “He gave me two strikes to try.
I probably got a little big and tried to do a little too much. But I mean, how many opportunities are you gonna have to do it?”
The numbers keep piling up in other places, too. Goodman’s 18 road homers are the most in MLB and the most by a Rockies player away from Coors Field before the All-Star break. That total already puts him in the franchise’s single-season top 10 for road homers, with 37 road games still left.
He’s also hitting a homer once every 11.44 at-bats, a mark that trails only Schwarber this season. With 10 more games before the break, Goodman still has a shot at Todd Helton’s Rockies record of 12.12 at-bats per homer before the All-Star break.
And then there’s the catcher piece, which only makes the whole thing more striking. Schaeffer said Goodman’s daily habits and body maintenance give him a chance to keep this going for a long time.
“I think he’s got a long lucrative career in front of him,” Schaeffer said. “Just the way he goes about his business on a daily basis, how he takes care of his body, what he believes in himself, how good of a team guy is - all the peripheral stuff that actually absolutely matters to longevity. He does it now, so there’s no reason for me to think that this would slow down.”
Goodman is only the third primary catcher to reach 27 homers before the All-Star break since the first Midsummer Classic in 1933. The others were Cal Raleigh, who had 38 in 2025, and Johnny Bench, who had 28 in 1970.
For the Rockies, the case is simple: All-Star Game, yes. Home Run Derby, too.
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