Pete Alonso's road to a Home Run Derby repeat starts with a Royal.
MLB revealed the official brackets for Monday's Home Run Derby on Wednesday night, and with players seeded by their current home run total through Tuesday's games, defending champion Alonso drew the fifth seed, and will face Kansas City catcher Salvador Perez in Round 1.
Beyond that? Shohei Ohtani, the No. 1 seed as MLB's home run leader, or Washington's Juan Soto awaits, and the other side of the bracket has No. 2 Joey Gallo vs. No. 7 Trevor Story and No. 3 Matt Olson vs. No. 6 Trey Mancini.
Alonso won the 2019 Derby in Cleveland, hitting 57 total homers – fourth-most ever in a Derby – including 23 in an epic finals against Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who opted out of this year's event despite being second in the AL in homers behind Ohtani.
Should Alonso repeat (there was, of course, no 2020 Derby), he would be just the third to win back-to-back Derbies – Ken Griffey Jr. won in 1998 and 1999, while Yoenis Cespedes won in 2013 and 2014 – and fourth all-time to win multiple; Griffey, who also won in 1994, is the only three-time winner, and Prince Fielder won in 2009 and 2012 ahead of Cespedes' run.
Alonso has 15 home runs this season through Wednesday, and his 84 since the beginning of 2019 are the most in MLB over the last three seasons. Betonline.ag has him listed as the second favorite at 5/1, tied with Gallo and behind Ohtani at 5/2, to win the event.
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