Picture: Lauren Shehadi MLB host of The Home Run Derby
Bigger, faster, stronger, and streaming live to millions worldwide. Netflix is turning baseball’s greatest display of power into a global entertainment event, and MLB host Lauren Shehadi is ready to bring you right onto the field. We had the opportunity to discuss the Home Run Derby with Lauren, gaining her incredible insight into what die-hard fans and newcomers to the event can look forward to watching on Netflix.
Lauren Shehadi is a lifelong baseball fan and a beloved host on MLB Network since 2012. Her skill as a host is matched by her passion and love for the great American pastime. Her versatility as a host has allowed her to appeal to both casual and hardcore baseball fans, with expert analysis and the ability to read the emotions of the game. With over 750 episodes of the MLB Central under her belt, her impact extends far beyond the studio walls. From the high-pressure environment of the MLB postseason sidelines to long-form audio storytelling, she has proven to be one of the most adaptable and reliable voices in modern sports media.
On July 13, 2026, the Home Run Derby will be broadcast live on Netflix from Citizens Bank Park, where Lauren Shehadi will be joined by Matt Vasgersian, Elle Duncan, and MLB legends including Barry Bonds, CC Sabathia, Anthony Rizzo, and Hunter Pence.
What opportunity does Netflix have compared to traditional broadcasters when it comes to making baseball feel like a global entertainment product rather than just an American sport?
Oh, that’s such a great question. The home run derby is the greatest display of power in our game, and I feel like so often this is such a team sport, but for one day everything is about the individual performance. That the strength, the grit, and the teamwork with the pitcher and Netflix have an opportunity to let that shine and tell the backstory of all these players. So many of these players who are participating are being thrown to by their dad, so we interweave those family ties that we all grew up watching baseball, playing baseball in our backyard, and then on the big stage with the grand home rangers of generations we have on our set. So it’s going to be a cool, cool combination to kind of bring to the masses.
It’s a bit like the NFL Pro Bowl Games, bringing in their best superstars to come together and take on unique individual challenges?
The technology side is different this year in that there’s no clock. So years past, the Derby has been on a clock system where you have a certain finite amount of time to take your swings. So we’ve seen players be exhausted by the end of the round, and their swings aren’t exactly the pure swings that they’d want to—put together when they’re trying to put their best foot forward. This is completely different. They’re going to be so fit on these pitches. This is the mix of strength and selection, and the pitcher in tune with you. So there’s a little bit of strategy involved, not just pure strength.
Picture (L to R): Matt Vasbersian, Lauren Shehadi and Mark DeRosa
What do you think makes home the homerun derby such a perfect introduction to baseball for someone who’s never watched the sport before?
Wow, well, it’s bigger, faster, stronger baseball. We always talk about that, right, like evolution of man, and you love to be entertained, and so many people say baseball. The nuance of the game, right? We’re entertained by the balk. We’re entertained by a runner stealing second, but if you’re just watching it for the first time, you want to see the long ball. You want to see the home run; you want to see the power, the swinging for the fences, the action, the offense, and this is that it’s just that it’s the little nuance of the game that you get to love. Like me, if you’re a baseball purist and you’ve been watching it since you were a young kid, that’s not there; it’s simply, how far can you hit the ball? And when we talk to players all the time, when we talk to kids in Little League, they’re 12 years old. What are you doing when you go up to the plate? I’m gonna hit the ball as hard as I can. These are the stars of our game trying to do it at the highest level.
All-gas, no-brakes sort of approach?
Yeah, exactly!
How much of your preparation involves thinking about the fan who’s watching for the first time compared to a fan who’s been watching for decades?
I’ve thought about that actually a lot, and it’s an excellent question. The fan that’s been watching for decades knows everything about these players, right? They know the hardships that they’ve gone through; they know what their swing tendencies are. First-time viewers just want to see a show, right? So how do you weave that together? It’s an interesting dynamic, and I think there are different people on our broadcast to do that.
We have some of the best vloggers in the game. On our broadcast, they’re going to talk about what kind of swings they’re taking, right? They’re going to talk about what they know. They played 18 years in the show. I’m gonna leave that to them, then we have our play-by-play announcer who’s one of the best. He has a flair for the dramatic and a knack for the big moment and a voice to carry it, and I’m gonna leave that to him.
My job, I think, is to get the emotion of the player, something you couldn’t possibly know. I always feel like if you’re on the field, forget the numbers, forget anything anyone could look up on the internet. Tell me something that I couldn’t possibly know if I wasn’t there. Something I couldn’t possibly know if I was there, right? I need to know what’s going on on that field. So I just saw an example of that one. I just saw a player point to the right dugout. Who are they pointing to? What are they asking right now before their second swing? Those little things, right? I’ll be watching on the field, and I’ll be saying Why did you just motion over to, you know, one of the veteran players on your team? What were you getting a pep talk, those kinds of things? That’s what I’m hoping to bring them from the field.
Oct 17, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter is presented the NLCS trophy by TBS reporter Lauren Shehadi after game four of the NLCS round for the 2025 MLB playoffs against the Milwaukee Brewers at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
With sports, there are always fans who are super into the analytical side of the game, but regardless of what sport it is, everyone loves the drama. So it’s your job to bring those people in and add the little nuances that provide context and entertainment, compared to just the analytical side of the sport.
Yeah, and I feel like there are so many people who are knee-deep in analytics, and then I talk to players all the time, and I say, “What do you pay attention to?” All the analytics and a lot of them say no sometimes it’s too much for me I see the ball and I hit the ball and then you get the players who watch every swing on the ipad and you see them in the dugout and they’re analyzing, so just like players are a mix, so are fans so we have to cater to both of them, which will be fun and interesting.
You’ve got a Moneyball approach, and then you have got your sluggers.
Exactly. There’s something for everyone, and people watch the game for different reasons. So we’re going to bring both of those reasons to them.
Netflix has introduced millions of people around the world to Formula One through its storytelling through Drive to Survive. I know the major difference is that The Home Run Derby is a live event, but could it be baseball’s equivalent for audiences outside of America and even for new audiences in America?
You are going to see on your screen the great entertainment that baseball brings. It will draw you in. I guarantee that because it’s everything that we like about sport, right? We like competition, we like strength, we like strategy, and we like when it’s one-on-one, so we’re going to see that there are eight participants in the home run derby. It’s going to go down to four, and then it’s going to go one-on-four and two-on-three. So it’s head-to-head competition, and we’re going to bring you inside real time on the field right before their swings. So it’s the strategy and the power, and you’re going to see it all play out on your screen. So I can’t imagine that you don’t want to keep it on the screen. It’s going to be something else.
Picture: Cal Raleigh of the Mariners and winner of the 2025 Home Run Derby
This partnership that the MLB has struck with Netflix- could that become a blueprint for the MLB in the future for how it approaches the sport for younger and global audiences?
We saw it on opening day. We broadcast the Giants and the Yankees on opening day on Netflix. We stayed true to the game in this baseball sense. We are baseball purists who want the baseball game- but there was also an entertainment aspect that Kids said: “Oh my gosh, you see that game on Netflix?” That was fun. It was cool.
It was different; there were different aspects of the broadcast, so it’s a difficult line to thread, I guess. I feel like, with opening day, Netflix killed it because they stayed true to the entertainment and to the game. Now this will be a little bit different because it’s all entertainment. There is one guy who is going to win. Even though it doesn’t count toward the 162 schedule, it does mean we can go pure entertainment. Let’s entertain the fans, entertain the masses, and that’s what Netflix does better than anybody
Earlier this year, Netflix streamed every game of the Baseball Classic on Netflix Japan, and just recently Netflix added two more NFL games to its schedule. Could we see more MLB games, or even the playoffs, added to Netflix in the near future?
Wouldn’t that be something? Coming off the success of the opening day, and then we’re going to have Field of Dreams, and they’re all three different events. I feel like Netflix picked three very different events, which I think was cool. It’s got the pomp and the circumstance of opening day; let’s make it grand, and it was so grand. The Home Run Derby is so entertaining, and that’s what we’re looking forward to, and then there’s the pageantry and the kind of history and the nostalgia of the Field of Dreams in a cornfield in Iowa, taking you back to so many people’s roots in the game, right in the back in the backyard. That’s how I grew up with my dad.
I played softball. I was the first baseman, and my dad would keep score every single game, and every single game I’d make some sort of mistake, some sort of error, and my dad would look at me. I remember it so vividly. I was 12 years old, and he’d go, “E3 like error on you,” and I’d go, ” Dad, I couldn’t get that ball; it was behind me and he would say, “You pick up your teammates.” I learned all my life lessons on the baseball and softball field. And so the field of dreams is kind of that nostalgia throwing you back. So I do like the mix, and I feel like it opens up for more on Netflix for sure.
Picture: Lauren Shehadi (circled in red) with her fellow teammates of the McLean Little Leaguers
Compared to other American Sports, baseball feels like one of the most accessible. Especially when it comes to accessibility for watching it live, because there are so many more games.
It’s accessible for the audience and accessible to play. I work a lot with Pedro Martinez, who is one of the best to ever do it, one of the best pitchers to ever do it, and he talks about his days in the Dominican when he would take a paper bag and play catch. That was his roots in the game, right? So many kids are growing up in all parts of the country and around the world, learning baseball for the very first time.
I remember I was in Philadelphia, right outside Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, and there were these Amish children playing baseball. I’ll never forget it. It was about 10 years ago, and I thought to myself, they haven’t seen it on TV. So, how do they know how to play?
It was for the love of the game, right? It was just a bunch of kids playing ball. So it’s accessible to everyone. It’s a game for everyone. Everyone sort of feels some sort of way about watching a baseball game, so the sky’s the limit in terms of Viewership, but also love, love for the sport that I love so much. Well, hopefully, uh, certain fans have gone and enjoyed some of the baseball games during the World Cup.
Picture: Jameis Winston of talksport (left) with Lauren Shehadi (right) on Netflix’s MLB Opening Day where the New York Yankees defeated the San Francisco Giants 7-0
Even during the World Cup, fans have gone and enjoyed some baseball games.
Oh, it was so cool. I remember seeing them at Fenway! I forget which fans were there, but they were chanting one of the players’ names, and I thought to myself, “They don’t know this player.” They’re taking in baseball for the first time, and I thought maybe they do? Maybe they’re huge fans of baseball, and how cool is this to see these two sports colliding!
You know, we’re seeing it. We’re seeing baseball every year take new heights there; there are games in Latin America. There are games in Asia. There are games in a cornfield in Iowa. We saw a game at the Coliseum, the last great Coliseum out of a race car track, right? So we’re seeing so many different implementations of Baseball and so many different versions of it, and I think what’s great about Netflix is every time they get a baseball product, their number one goal, whenever we talk about this, is stay true to the game number one, which is for baseball fans. That’s number one.
We love our game the way it is, and then they ask the second question: how can we make it even better? How can we make it greater? I feel like we accomplished that with opening day, and I feel like home run derby is the second challenge, and from our production calls, they are just going to knock it out of the park.
Are you looking forward to watching Lauren in action at the Home Run Derby? Will you be watching on Netflix? Let us know in the comments below!
