ESPN's 2026 MLB Bat Flip Championship Belt tracker - ESPN

We're trying something new here at ESPN this baseball season: We're going to crown the bat flip champion of 2026. The days of bat flips being controversial are over as players can flip and toss, and enjoy their home runs with impunity (well, for the most part).

This will be a running file updated throughout the season. We'll crown the initial winner of the Bat Flip Championship Belt and then, whenever a worthy competitor enters the ring, he'll square off with the current holder to see whose bat flip comes out on top and whether the belt gets passed along.

Whoever finishes the season with the belt is the 2026 champion.

Our first showdown of the season to crown the inaugural holder of the belt is between Randy Arozarena of the Seattle Mariners and Gavin Sheets of the San Diego Padres, with their home runs Friday night. Let the battle begin!

Let's start with Arozarena, who hit his first home run of 2026 into the second deck in left field at T-Mobile Park, a 426-foot blast to a part of the ballpark rarely reached. He stylized the home run with flair, nearly dropping to one knee and keeping the bat pointed to the sky as he watched the ball soar way over the fence, then long-tossing the bat with both hands as he began his trot… which, by the way, lasted 31.54 seconds, the fifth-longest trot of the young season:

Call that ball Artemis because it went to the moon and back