Minor League Baseball

Seattle Mariners Top Prospect Becomes First Minor League Player to Hit Milestone This Season

Lazaro Montes is now a member of the 20-home run club.
Brady Farkas|
A view of a Seattle Mariners batting helmet and logo during the game between the Texas Rangers and the Seattle Mariners at Globe Life Field in 2022.
A view of a Seattle Mariners batting helmet and logo during the game between the Texas Rangers and the Seattle Mariners at Globe Life Field in 2022. | Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

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Seattle Mariners

Seattle Mariners top prospect Lazaro Montes continued to make his presence felt on Friday night for Double-A Arkansas, hitting his second home run in as many games since being promoted from High-A Everett.

Per Francys Romero on social media:

Mariners prospect Lazaro Montes is the first player to reach 20 home runs this season across all of Minor League Baseball.

He did it with a monster 475 FT shot.

Montes is the No. 31 prospect in baseball, per MLB Pipeline, and he's the No. 2-ranked prospect in the organization, behind only Colt Emerson. Predicted to make his major league debut in 2026, he's one of the most powerful prospects in the game. He had 21 homers and 105 RBIs last season between Single-A and High-A, and he's drawn comparisons to fellow-Cuban slugger Yordan Alvarez.

Still just 20 years old, Montes has more development to undergo, but he looks like he could be a force in the M's lineup in the near future. He's one of nine Top-100 prospects for the Mariners, along with Emerson, Cole Young, Jonny Farmelo, Harry Ford, Michael Arroyo, Felnin Celesten, Jurrangelo Cijntje and Ryan Sloan. Arroyo was promoted with Montes earlier this week.

At the big-league level, the M's are now 42-39 and in second place in the American League West. They are 6.5 games behind the Houston Astros, but currently have a grip on the third and final wild card spot. Seattle hasn't made the playoffs since the 2022 season.

They'll take on the Texas Rangers on Saturday at 1:05 p.m. PT.

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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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