{"id":10056,"date":"2017-12-20T22:06:32","date_gmt":"2017-12-21T03:06:32","guid":{"rendered":"lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/\/?p=10056"},"modified":"2017-12-20T22:08:01","modified_gmt":"2017-12-21T03:08:01","slug":"yonder-alonso-signs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2017\/12\/20\/yonder-alonso-signs\/","title":{"rendered":"Yonder Alonso Signs With The Cleveland Indians"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The veteran slugger first baseman, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/a\/alonsyo01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Yonder Alonso<\/strong><\/a>, has hit his way into a new deal with the <a href=\"lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/\/mlb-teams\/cleveland-indians\/\" target=\"_self\">Cleveland Indians<\/a> for two-years worth $16 million. There is a vesting option for a third year.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Free agent 1B Yonder Alonso in agreement with <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Indians?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Indians<\/a> on two-year, $16M contract, sources tell The Athletic. Deal includes $8M vesting option for a third year. Agreement first reported by <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BNightengale?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@BNightengale<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Ken_Rosenthal\/status\/943675721549012993?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">December 21, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h1>Yonder Alonso Signs With the Cleveland Indians<\/h1>\n<h3>Alonso&#8217;s Career Profile<\/h3>\n<p>Drafted in the first round by the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/cincinnati-reds\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cincinnati Reds<\/a> in 2008, he would make his major league debut two years later in 2010. He would end up playing in Cincinnati for two years batting a .299 batting average with five home runs and 18 RBI. During the 2011 off-season, Alonso, along with pitchers <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/v\/volqued01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Edinson Volquez<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/boxbebr01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brad Boxberger<\/a><\/strong>, and catcher <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/grandya01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Yasmani Grandal<\/a><\/strong> to the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/san-diego-padres\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">San Diego Padres<\/a>. In exchange, the Reds acquired pitcher <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/l\/latosma01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mat Latos<\/a><\/strong>. Alonso would play for the Padres for four years, hitting .271 with 27 home runs and 165 RBI. During the 2016 off-season, Alonso was once again traded, along with pitcher <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/rzepcma01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Marc Rzepczynski<\/a><\/strong>, to the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/oakland-athletics\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Oakland Athletics<\/a>. In exchange, the Padres acquired pitchers <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/p\/pomerdr01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Drew Pomeranz<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/t\/torrejo02.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jose Torres<\/a><\/strong>, and a player to be named later, who was revealed as right fielder <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/blashja01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jabari Blash<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>During the 2017 season, in the August trading season, Alonso was traded for the third time. This time he was traded to the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/seattle-mariners\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Seattle Mariners<\/a> in exchange for center fielder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/p\/powelbo02.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Boog Powell<\/a>. During his career so far, Alonso has hit .268 with 67 home runs and 306 RBI.<\/p>\n<h3>The Impact Of The Signing<\/h3>\n<p>Alonso&#8217;s power would be an asset on any team, but especially for the Indians, who lost <strong>Carlos Santana<\/strong> <a href=\"lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/\/2017\/12\/15\/carlos-santana-signs-phillies\/\" target=\"_self\">earlier in the off-season<\/a>. For the Mariners, they lose a first baseman who has played for at least 100 games for five of his eight career seasons. Alonso&#8217;s durability is also one of his greatest strengths.<\/p>\n<h3>How He Can Thrive<\/h3>\n<p>Under this new system, Alonso, who is still relatively young at the age of 30, will most likely be able to share time at 1B\/DH in this new system with <strong>Edwin Encarnacion<\/strong>. This should keep both players healthy.But that doesn&#8217;t mean that Alonso won&#8217;t be used as a big part of the offense. Alonso can still hit some deep balls, and Cleveland hopes this move is one piece to finally winning that elusive World Series Title.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<br \/>\n<a id=\"woySngoNQ_BsaBwXqhVszg\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/843397342\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'woySngoNQ_BsaBwXqhVszg',sig:'RAF9hKJwrCwPH8MGvgCXl8jSwgM8XbE1VF1nNftu21E=',w:'594px',h:'423px',items:'843397342',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The veteran slugger first baseman, Yonder Alonso, has hit his way into a new deal with the Cleveland Indians for two-years worth $16 million. There is a vesting option for a third year. Free agent 1B Yonder Alonso in agreement with #Indians on two-year, $16M contract, sources tell The Athletic. Deal includes $8M vesting option [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2292,"featured_media":10068,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35,9,1071],"tags":[68,941,69,158,284],"class_list":["post-10056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-guardians","category-mlb","tag-baseball","tag-latest-mlb-news","tag-mlb","tag-seattle-mariners","tag-yonder-alonso"],"modified_by":"Ben Kerr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2292"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}