More than a power hitter, Lazaro Montes looks to be Seattle’s next big thing

With a personality as big as his six-foot-five frame, Lazaro is coming to an affiliate near you

Making Julio Rodríguez appear short is a task usually reserved for basketball players and Aaron Judge, but when all six-feet-five of Lazaro Montes amble through the complex in Peoria, for a brief while Julio is by default not the tallest—nor the loudest—in attendance.

Not that Lazaro cares. He seeks out the Mariners’ superstar centerfielder, eager to catch up in rapid-fire Spanish, trade jokes and most importantly, pick the brain of a player whose career he’d like to emulate.

It’s something he had several opportunities to do during spring training; the Mariners complex in Peoria houses the big-leaguers on one side and the minor-leaguers on the other, with shared facilities in between, making it easy for the 19-year-old Montes to connect with the older and wiser Julio (23 years of age). Montes also played a handful of games with the big-league club during spring training, making his mark, most notably with this two-RBI triple in a delightful romp over the Dodgers:

But Montes also contributed in quieter ways during the spring, walking and coming up with base knocks. It’s all part of his quest to be known not just as an elite power hitter, but a well-rounded player who can contribute in all facets of the game. The jaw-dropping power is there—when asked how he would describe himself as a hitter, he says “un animal,” which needs no translation—but Montes has been focused this past year-plus on transforming himself into a more complete ballplayer and making improvements to his game.

One of those improvements has been in cutting down his strikeout rate at the plate, something Montes credits to a change in mentality and his maturation throughout the process of moving up in the minor leagues, moving from the relatively sheltered environments of complex ball into the challenges of full-season ball at Modesto.

“The truth is failure is a part of baseball and of life,” says Montes, “and I learned a lot about why I failed, and how I can do better. I don’t want to fail and go home and feel bad. No, no. If I fail I want to understand where I failed and work to get better at that thing.”

Like Julio before him, Montes is hungry to learn and not afraid to fail. He’s deeply curious about the world around him, and enjoys spending time in nature, as well as in museums. “I love art!” he says enthusiastically. He especially enjoys visual arts like painting, but likes to read and write and draw, as well. He’s eager to try out his second language, and is working on a third: Italian, because his sister lives there.

“I’m working hard on my English because I want to speak English with the fans,” he says in English, before switching to Spanish. “And I especially want to be able to talk to the kids who come to the park, to answer their questions and give them advice about baseball, or life in general.”

It’s a way of giving back for the advice that he’s been grateful to receive, not just in big-league camp this spring from both the coaches and players like Julio he hopes to one day share a field with, but also from his parents, who have had a strong hand in Lazaro’s education, on and off the baseball field.

“From when I was little, my dad taught me how to be a competitor,” he says—and not just any competitor: since Montes was about six years old, his father has been coaching him with an eye to playing not just in Cuba, but in MLB, with the eventual goal of making the Hall of Fame.

Montes comes from athletic parents, although neither were baseball players. His father, Yosmel, represented Cuba in the hammer throw in the World Junior Championships, while his mother excelled in judo. Lazaro inherited his father’s large stature—Yosmel stands at 6’3”—and also his strength, which showed in the younger Montes at an early age. After retiring from hammer throwing, Yosmel dedicated his life towards developing his son’s athletic ability, eventually moving the family to the Dominican Republic so Lazaro could develop his skills with the best trainers in the Caribbean.

It was a painful decision for the Montes family to leave Cuba, the land of their birth, a land in which they had great pride, but in order for Lazaro to achieve their shared goal of him becoming not just an MLB star but a member of the Hall of Fame, it was a necessary sacrifice.

But Lazaro remains connected to his homeland; if you couldn’t pick him out by the way he towers over mere mortals, look for the red triangle and blue-and-white stripes of the Cuban flag, which Montes proudly displays wherever he can: on headbands and wristbands, his glove, or his omnipresent off-field hat of choice, a khaki bucket hat embroidered with the Cuban flag.

Montes’s Cuban roots also show through in his choice of a favorite player growing up: not Jeter or or Trout or Harper, nor even a Cuban MLB player, but Alexander Malleta, who was also born in Montes’s hometown of Havana. Malleta had already been playing for Havana’s team, Los Industriales, also known as Los Azules, for ten years before Montes was even born, and would play over 20 years in Cuban baseball, mostly for Los Azules, before retiring in 2019.

Malleta became a star for the Cuban national team in 2004, the same year Lazaro was born; he unofficially retired after the 2019 season and officially retired in July 2023, exactly one year after Montes signed his professional contract with the Mariners. A gold medalist at the Central and Caribbean Games (2006, 2014)—where Montes’s father had once competed for Cuba in hammer throw—a gold medalist in the Pan American Games (2007), and a silver medalist in the Olympics (2008), as well as playing for Cuba in the 2009 World Baseball Classic, Malleta is deeply respected among Cubans for his long and productive career, spent mostly with Los Azules and entirely on the island. He might not be the biggest star Cuban baseball ever produced, but he is the star who stayed.

Montes’s career will take a different path, away from his family and his beloved Cuba but towards the big-league future of his dreams. It’s what motivates him to work so hard.

“The atmosphere of being here, far from your parents, far from your family, I’m thinking, okay, I’m here, I have sacrificed, I want this, I love it. And I’m starting to go much deeper: what do I need to do to get to the big leagues? These are the things I’m thinking about.”

More sacrifices would come in the off-season, giving up time at home with family to train, first in Miami and then LA. Like Julio before him, Montes is intent on shaking the label of “unathletic big man,” and spent this off-season working on becoming a more explosive athlete.

“I focused on my whole body,” he says, “but especially on my velocity and agility, which I needed to work on.”

It’s where those omnipresent comparisons to Yordan Álvarez, although flattering, can also feel somewhat limiting. Montes recognizes it’s a great compliment to be compared to Álvarez, already one of the most accomplished Cuban players of the modern era at just 26.

“It feels good. Yordan is an amazing player, amazing hitter, so it’s exciting [to be compared to him.”

Despite working with the same trainer in the Dominican, Lazaro has never talked to his Cuban counterpart, although he hopes to change that this year. Who he has talked to: Julio Rodríguez, who Lazaro deeply admires. He wants to model himself after Julio, not just as a hitter, but as an outfielder, as well—another bigger-framed player who was early on dismissed by scouts as a corner outfielder at best.

“Wow, I’ve learned so many things,” Montes says when asked about what he’s observed from spending time with Seattle’s young star. “I’ve learned how to make good decisions, how to think like a pitcher, and how to play outfield. I envision myself doing what he does: I watch how he plays, how he moves, throws he makes.

“I want to play center field. Maybe not this year, but that’s my goal.”

It’s hard to wrong-foot the gregarious, composed, quick-minded Montes, but the idea of adding his name to the ranks of Cubans who have played in MLB—including modern mononyms like Yordan, Abreu, Adolis, Randy—is something that temporarily dazzles even him.

“For me, that is something that I have in my mind, that would be so special to me. That’s what I’m fighting for, working for every day, and thanks be to God for all the success I’ve had in this process so far.”

If you want to watch Lazaro and some of the other bright young stars in the system, several will be starting this year at Modesto, Seattle’s Low-A affiliate. Most of Seattle’s affiliate games are televised on MiLB TV, which you can purchase as a standalone or add on to an existing MLB TV subscription for a discounted rate, giving you access to every MiLB team, no blackouts. Opening Day for MiLB (except Triple-A, which is already in season) is this Friday; Modesto opens at Stockton, Oakland’s affiliate, at 7:05 PT.