The Dominican of the Chicago White Sox, Yermin Mercedes, is no longer as explosive with the wood as at the beginning of the season of MLBBut that hasn’t taken away his desire to be in the Home Run Derby.
Mercedes has only 7 home runs this season, but feels capable of putting on a good show and being the successor to Pete Alonso, the winner of the last edition in 2019. Also Yordan Álvarez, of the Houston Astros, said he wants to attend.
More Pete Alonso on the HRD win:
“A million dollars, you can put it in the bank, you can spend it all. It doesn’t matter what you do with it. At the end of the day, I’m a Home Run Derby champion. No one’s going to take that away from me. That in itself is priceless. “#Mets
– David Lennon (@DPLennon) July 9, 2019
Last year neither the Home Run Derby nor the All-Star Game due to cuts due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I want to be there,” Mercedes told the official MLB website. “I want to show my fans and everyone that I can hit home runs.”
MLB 2021 | Results, games for today, news, rumors, live broadcast and forecasts of the Major Leagues
MLB 2021 | Results, games for today, news, rumors, live broadcast and forecasts of the Major Leagues
MLB 2021 | Results, games for today, news, rumors, live broadcast and forecasts of the Major Leagues
MLB 2021 | Results, games for today, news, rumors, live broadcast and forecasts of the Major Leagues
Fans are always a good reason, but there is another compelling reason to want to participate. The Home Run Derby champion doesn’t walk out of the park with just a trophy, he also takes a million dollar prize.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Pete Alonso each will make $ 555,000 this year.
One of them will get $ 1 million tonight for winning the Home Run Derby.
– Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) July 9, 2019
This year the Home Run Derby will be played on July 12 at Coors Field in Colorado and the winner will not be the only one to come out with a check in hand.
In addition to the million to the champion, a bag of 1.5 million dollars is distributed among the rest of the participants. This has meant a considerable increase, since in 2018 the total bag was $ 525,000.