The Cuban Lázaro Montes once again made waves in the Major League Baseball this Friday night with a two-run home run as a pinch hitter that traveled 430 feet, tying the game 4-4 against the Oakland Athletics in the sixth inning, marking his third home run since being promoted to the MLB.
The hit, which the league's official account described as "Laz Montes hits it out!", was not enough to save the Seattle Mariners, who fell 6-5 in ten innings after a walk-off home run by Donovan Walton.
With this third home run in the major leagues, Montes has accumulated 40 home runs in the 2026 season: 37 achieved in Double-A and Triple-A before his call-up, and three since he arrived in the Majors at the beginning of September.
The figure is extraordinary for a 21-year-old player in his first experience in the Major Leagues, and it establishes the Havana native as one of the most explosive debuts by a Cuban in recent years.
The journey of Montes in MLB has been a succession of records since day one. On September 1, at Fenway Park against the Boston Red Sox, he hit a 407-foot home run in his debut and became the youngest player in Mariners history to achieve this feat, at 21 years and 314 days old.
A week later, against the Texas Rangers at T-Mobile Park, he set the record for the longest home run in that stadium during the Statcast era: 474 feet with an exit velocity of 116.1 mph, surpassing Mike Zunino's mark of 470 feet from 2018 and tying with Fernando Tatis Jr. for the longest in all of MLB this season.
Montes signed with Seattle in January 2022 as an international free agent for a bonus of 2.5 million dollars, and in the 2026 season in the minor leagues, he accumulated 38 home runs, 96 RBIs, and an OPS of .927 in 123 games between Arkansas and Tacoma, which propelled him to be ranked as the number 43 prospect by MLB Pipeline and the third within the Mariners organization.
The context for the team, however, is bittersweet. Seattle has a record of 69 wins and 79 losses and is six games away from the Wild Card and the lead in its division, with slim chances of qualifying for the postseason.
Montes represents practically the only bright spot in a disappointing season for the Mariners, and his breakout in September raises questions about what the Cuban can do with a full season in the Major Leagues.
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