The Mariners have reached the point of the season where their last hope arrives wearing No. 99 and carrying only 44 games of Triple-A experience. Lázaro Montes is in Seattle’s lineup today at Fenway Park, batting seventh and serving as the DH against the Red Sox. The 21-year-old is no longer something Mariners fans have to dream about. He’s here, and he’s immediately being plugged in a lineup that needs to become more interesting.
As exciting as his debut sounds, we need to be realistic about what it represents for the Mariners. This is an act of desperation. And that’s not to say Montes didn’t earn the call. But the temperature in the room says it all.
The Mariners will enter Montes’ debut at 64-74, riding a five-game losing streak and sitting 5.5 games behind the final AL Wild Card spot. They’re asking a kid who began the year in Double-A to provide the jolt their established lineup never consistently found.
It makes perfect sense. Montes earned this opportunity by hitting the ball absurdly hard. He finished his minor-league season with 38 home runs and a .928 OPS across Double-A Arkansas and Triple-A Tacoma. He hit 10 homers in 25 August games alone, posting a 1.054 OPS during his final month with the Rainiers. He also did that by hitting from launching pads in the Pacific Coast League.
The power isn’t a myth. Montes produced a 94.9 mph average exit velocity and a 57.5 percent hard-hit rate at Triple-A. When he barrels one up, expect fireworks.
It’s a threat Seattle desperately needs. Montes has the ability to flip a game with one at-bat and one swing.
Then comes the obvious concern: the first look at Montes could be a complete dud. That isn’t rooting for failure. It’s accepting the other side of the coin here. Montes struck out in 30.6 percent of his plate appearances this season, while his 34.3 percent in-zone whiff rate was the highest among 360 Triple-A hitters who saw at least 750 pitches. Elevated fastballs and breaking balls below the zone have given him problems, and left-handed pitching has been particularly difficult.
Major-league pitchers will find those holes quickly. We should expect some ugly at-bats. Colt Emerson’s rookie season already reminded us that even an advanced young hitter can get buried by major-league swing-and-miss. The two prospects have different offensive profiles, but the lesson remains that patience has to come with the package. With Montes, we’re going to have to take the towering home runs with the empty swings. There could be nights when he walks back to the dugout three times without touching the ball.
Seattle has to live with that. The timing of this debut exposes the larger organizational failure. The Mariners scored eight runs Monday, carried an 8-5 lead beyond the seventh inning and still lost 9-8 in extras. One day earlier, they managed one hit in a 7-0 loss to Toronto. This team can find completely different routes to the same miserable destination.
The veteran roster was supposed to keep Seattle’s season stable while prospects such as Montes developed. Now the prospect is being asked to supply the spark.
Batting him seventh at DH is the right opening move. More importantly, keep him in the lineup. Seattle has indicated that his playing time will be evaluated day to day as he adjusts to major-league pitching, but that evaluation cannot be made over his first few games. Montes deserves enough runway to struggle, adjust and show whether his power can play at this level. A rough first week cannot become an excuse to bench him.
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