MLB Bat Flip Championship Belt: Who's the first winner of 2026?

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!

Randy Arozarena vs. Gavin Sheets

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 🚀 pic.twitter.com/lJxxZohvWT

— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) April 11, 2026

That wasn't the end of Arozarena's celebration. The Mariners entered the game mired in a deep offensive slump, hitting .184 as a team. Arozarena hoisted Seattle's home run trident into the air at the top step of the dugout, sending the crowd of nearly 45,000 that was on hand for the unveiling of the Ichiro Suzuki statue into a frenzy. Then he high-fived his teammates and walked toward the dugout camera, where he started playing the trident like a guitar.

"We're coming off of a tough road trip," Arozarena told reporters after the game. "So I think to have this moment, it puts us in a good place."

Later that night at Petco Park, Sheets hit his second home run of the game, a dramatic three-run, walk-off blast to give the Padres a 5-2 win over the Colorado Rockies. What made this one cool is that Sheets crushed it as the crowd was chanting "Holy Sheets," a chant that began last season:

GAVIN SHEETS WALKS IT OFF!

THE @PADRES DO IT AGAIN! pic.twitter.com/mPHAYJqKXG

— MLB (@MLB) April 11, 2026

Wearing their new City Connect jerseys for the first time, Sheets' blast traveled 434 feet and gave the Padres a walk-off win for the second night in a row. As he skipped toward first base, he held the bat for a couple of seconds, finally tossing it away with a one-handed sidearm motion.

The winner: Arozarena.

No doubt, Sheets' home run was more dramatic. But this is for the Bat Flip Championship Belt, not the Walk-off Championship Belt, so Arozarena wins with the total package: the knee drop, the pointed bat, the long toss and, as a little extra credit, the guitar simulation.

Randy, the belt is yours!