The Cuban Lázaro Montes shook T-Mobile Park in Seattle this Tuesday with a 474-foot home run that rewritten the history books of the stadium, becoming the longest hit recorded in that venue since Statcast began measuring home runs in 2015.
The 21-year-old Havana baseball player, who dons the uniform of the Seattle Mariners, hit a 94.7 mph fastball from pitcher Cal Quantrill in the fourth inning and sent the ball to right-center field with an exit velocity of 116.1 mph.
The result was a three-run home run that temporarily cut the Texas Rangers' lead to 4-3, although the visiting team ultimately won 10-5.
The statistics from the home run are historic in several ways. Baseball analyst Francys Romero highlighted on social media that Montes' home run is, at the same time, the longest of the entire 2026 season in Major League Baseball—tying with one from Fernando Tatis Jr.—; the longest for any batter in the Seattle franchise since 2015, and the longest ever recorded at T-Mobile Park in the Statcast era.
The previous record at that stadium was held by Mike Zunino with a distance of 470 feet since June 29, 2018, a mark that stood for eight years before Montes shattered it.
Tatis Jr. had also reached 474 feet on July 21 at Truist Park in Atlanta, during the San Diego Padres' 8-3 victory over the Braves. Both hits now share the throne for the season.
Within the Mariners' history in the Statcast era, Montes' home run is the second longest, only surpassed by the massive hit of 482 feet that Jarred Kelenic hit at Wrigley Field in April 2023.
What makes the performance of the player from Havana even more impressive is the brevity of his career in the Major Leagues. Montes made his MLB debut on September 1 at Fenway Park against the Boston Red Sox, hitting a 407-foot home run in his first appearance and becoming the youngest player in Mariners history to hit a home run in his debut, at 21 years and 314 days old.
In just 18 at-bats in the best baseball in the world, the Cuban player has already accumulated two home runs and six RBIs, figures that establish him as one of the most explosive revelations in the final stretch of the season.
Montes signed with Seattle in January 2022 as an international free agent for 2.5 million dollars and reached the Major Leagues after a dominant season in the minor leagues with 37 home runs, 93 RBIs, and an OPS of .941, numbers that ranked him as the 43rd prospect in baseball and the third within the Mariners' system according to MLB Pipeline.
With just nine days in the majors, the young man from Havana already has his name etched in the historical records of the franchise and the league.
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