Lázaro Montes, who defected from Cuba in 2018 at age 13, signed with the Seattle Mariners for $2.5 million in January 2022, quickly earning a reputation as a high-risk, high-reward power prospect. After climbing through the minors—winning the 2025 Northwest League MVP and ranking as high as 42nd on MLB.com's prospect list—he made his major league debut on September 1, 2026. In that debut against the Boston Red Sox, he went 2-for-4 with a solo home run and 2 RBIs, becoming the first Mariners player to homer in his debut since Kyle Lewis (2019) and the first to notch multiple hits since Ichiro Suzuki (2001). Just a week later, on September 8, he mashed a 474-foot blast at T-Mobile Park—the longest home run tracked there since 2015 and tied for the longest in all of 2026. The young outfielder, who lives with his wife Monica and their son, has quickly become a breakout star for Seattle.