Minor League Baseball

Seattle Mariners Top Prospect Makes Curiously Big Change in Spring Training

This past weekend, Laz Montes, who is a top 100 prospect in the sport, changed up his agency. There's been no word on why.
Brady Farkas|
A detailed view of the Seattle Mariners armed forces day hat in the dugout against the Atlanta Braves in the first inning at Truist Park in 2023.
A detailed view of the Seattle Mariners armed forces day hat in the dugout against the Atlanta Braves in the first inning at Truist Park in 2023. | Brett Davis-Imagn Images

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Seattle Mariners

According to Cuban baseball insider Francys Romero, Seattle Mariners top prospect Laz Montes has changed his agency here in spring training. Romero reports that Montes will now be represented by Rimas Sports.

There's been no word on why Montes, 20, made the switch. Usually, guys change agencies when they don't feel the agency is getting them the best deal on a contract negotiation, but considering Montes has never even played Double-A, that wouldn't seem to be the issue here.

Montes is currently ranked as the No. 42 prospect in all of baseball, per MLB Pipeline. He's coming off a massive spring training performance on Monday, as he went 1-for-1 with two walks, three runs scored and a three-run homer as the Mariners beat the Brewers, 12-8.

Montes hit .288 last season between Low-A Modesto and High-A, also banging 21 homers and bringing in 105 runs.

The following comes from a portion of his MLB.com prospect profile:

Montes' loudest tool is still his top-of-the-scale raw power from the left side of the plate, and he's continuing to learn how to get to that pop consistently in games. He has outstanding bat speed with plenty of loft in his swing to drive the ball in the air, and he can regularly register elite-level exit velocities. There is some swing-and-miss to his game and there will always be strikeouts, but he also draws walks (14.4 percent walk rate in 2024) as he's learning to find better pitches to hit. He models his game after and is often compared to fellow Cuban Yordan Alvarez.

The Mariners will be back in action on Tuesday against the Los Angeles Dodgers during Cactus League play. They'll open the regular season on March 27 against the Athletics.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is the senior writer for “Minor League Baseball on SI’’ and the host of “The Payoff Pitch’’ podcast, which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. Follow Brady on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady.

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