Mariners’ Lazaro Montes Keeps Strengthening His Case as a 2027 Building Block

Montes came up for an audition and started rewriting the depth chart.

Sep 18, 2026; Denver, Colorado, USA; Seattle Mariners right fielder Lazaro Montes (99) tosses his bat on a solo home run in the ninth inning against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Eventually we’ll stop acting surprised when Lazaro Montes disposes a baseball 400+ feet into the bleachers. The Mariners had watched a three-run lead evaporate Friday night at Coors Field. The game was tied when Montes opened the ninth inning against Jordan Romano and sent a breaking ball 426 feet into the second deck beyond right field. It left his bat at 107.6 mph.

It was Montes’ first career go-ahead home run, pushing Seattle to a 5-4 win. He summed up his approach afterward with refreshing simplicity: “I wasn’t calm. I was angry.”

That’s cool. Keep it up. The easy story is that another very large man hit another baseball a very long way. We already know Montes can produce absurd measurements. His first four MLB home runs have traveled 407, 430, 474 and 426 feet, you know, only an average of roughly 434 feet.

Coors Field doesn’t even get special credit here, either. Montes had already gone deep at Fenway Park, T-Mobile Park and Sutter Health Park before arriving in Denver. Altitude may help ordinary fly balls, but we have quickly learned that it doesn’t manufacture his power. 

LAZARO. NO. DOUBTER. pic.twitter.com/RxDZX47lIE

— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) September 19, 2026

The Mariners Need to Create a Real 2027 Role for Montes

Through Friday, Montes had four home runs, 10 RBI and a .970 OPS in his first 32 major-league at-bats. That came after he hit 38 homers between Double-A Arkansas and Triple-A Tacoma. Each promotion has brought better pitching and fewer mistakes and the power keeps following him anyway. Friday’s home run added something the others couldn’t. This one was a clutch hit in the ninth inning of a tie game, after Seattle had nearly fumbled another winnable game.

That was a big moment as we start to look towards 2027. Montes isn’t in the majors just for September entertainment. His at-bats are going to help determine whether he can claim a meaningful role next season. He is beginning to make the answer pretty clear. 

The Mariners should enter the winter expecting Montes to have a role next season. Give him a legitimate runway in right field and at DH. There’s still plenty for him to learn. Montes has struck out 15 times in those 32 at-bats, and opposing pitchers will continue testing him. His defense in right field remains part of the evaluation, too.

Those weaknesses are the development plan. They are no longer a reason to wonder whether the underlying talent is worth accommodating.

This is also where the Mariners need to resist one of their favorite temptations. A talented, inexpensive hitter arrives, and internal improvement suddenly becomes the entire offseason strategy. Montes’ emergence should create more ambition, not less. Good organizations surround young power with dependable major-league offense. And they use cost-controlled production to spend elsewhere instead of treating it as permission to shop small.

Montes shouldn’t be asked to rescue this lineup by himself. We’ve seen Julio Rodríguez swing out of his shoes in his earlier years trying to win games by himself. Montes should be part of a dangerous and deeper lineup this time around.

That is what makes him a building block. He isn’t finished, and he isn’t guaranteed to become a superstar. He already changes what Seattle’s offense could look like, though. Every huge swing makes his place in that future a little harder to dismiss.