Pete Alonso is playing on a one-year, $555,000 deal in his rookie year with the New York Mets. His heroics in Monday night’s Home Run Derby earned him a major pay bump, as he made nearly twice that amount in less than three hours.
This is the first year MLB awarded its derby champ with a $1 million prize, a change the league announced back in March.
Alonso’s 57 home runs were the third-highest total of the night behind Vlad Guerrero Jr.’s 91 and Joc Pederson’s 60, but it was all about timing — not total — as he edged out each of his three head-to-head opponents by one home run apiece.
The first baseman said he plans to donate five percent of his prize to the Wounded Warrior Project along with five percent to Tunnel to Towers, an organization benefiting first responders.
