The Havana native Lázaro Montes fulfills every baseball player's dream this Tuesday: his debut in the Major Leagues. The Seattle Mariners confirmed their lineup for the game against the Boston Red Sox, with the 21-year-old Cuban prospect batting seventh as the designated hitter.
The meeting was scheduled for 3:45 p.m. local time in Boston, with Woo as the starting pitcher for Seattle. Pelota Cubana reported on the debut with excitement: "The long-awaited night has arrived: Lázaro Montes will be in a Major League lineup for the first time."
The Mariners selected the player from Triple-A Tacoma as part of the September roster expansion, the usual mechanism that allows teams to increase their rosters at the end of the regular season.
Montes arrives in MLB backed by a record-breaking minor league season. In 123 games split between Double-A Arkansas and Triple-A Tacoma, the player from Havana compiled a .249 batting average, 38 home runs, 24 doubles, 96 RBIs, and 99 runs scored, with an OPS of .927.
Those 38 home runs were enough for him to break a record for the island that stood for 67 years: that of Juan Francisco «Pancho» Herrera, who hit 37 home runs with the Buffalo Bisons in the International League in 1959, also winning the Triple Crown of that league.
Born in Havana on October 22, 2004, Montes signed with Seattle in January 2022 as an international free agent for a bonus of 2.5 million dollars. Since then, he has climbed every level of the Mariners' system without stopping, accumulating Most Valuable Player awards in the California League and the Northwest League.
His raw power —compared to that of Yordan Álvarez, with whom he shares a hitting instructor— has made him one of the most watched prospects in baseball. MLB Pipeline ranks him as the 43rd prospect in baseball overall and third within the Seattle system, while Baseball America places him among the top three in the team.
In 2025, Montes was the only Cuban selected for the All-Star Futures Game, an honor reserved for the top baseball prospects from the Americas.
His debut occurs in a season when Cuba has reached historic figures of presence in MLB: at least 29 Cuban players appeared on Major League rosters before this Tuesday, including Luis Robert Jr., Orlando Ribalta, and Franco Alemán. Montes becomes the 30th or more to join that list during the 2026 season.
The Mariners arrive at the debut of the Havana player with a record of 64-74, practically eliminated from the postseason, which makes Montes' appearance more of a future investment for the franchise rather than a tactical move for the playoffs.
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