Mariners rookie Lazaro Montes hits tape-measure home run
Published 8:40 am Wednesday, September 9, 2026
Another day, another history-making moment for Seattle Mariners rookie Lazaro Montes. This time, the longest home run in T-Mobile Park history in the Statcast era (since 2015).
Facing Texas Rangers right-hander Cal Quantrill, Montes deposited a fourth-inning middle-middle fastball 474 feet deep into the center-field stands at Seattle’s home ballpark for his second career home run.
It represented three of the five runs Seattle managed to scratch against Texas in a 10-5 loss Tuesday night.
The ball left the bat at 116.1 mph, and Montes struck it with bat speed clocked at 79.1 mph. As if there were any doubt, Statcast has confirmed it would be a home run in all 30 major-league ballparks.
Though the numbers are eye-popping, the former Northwest League MVP while with the Everett AquaSox says he has hit farther home runs as a minor leaguer.
“This is not the only one,” he told reporters. “I need to get another one.”
It is the second-longest home run by a Mariner (also since 2015), behind former top prospect Jarred Kelenic’s 482-foot blast he slugged into the second deck of Wrigley Field’s iconic bleacher seats in 2023, his third season as a professional.
The eye-popping stats don’t end there, though. Montes’ blast is tied with Fernando Tatis Jr.’s for the longest home run this season. Tatis claimed the title in July after the All-Star break, when he took Atlanta Braves rookie JR Ritchie deep at Truist Park. Both long balls are just 1 foot longer than Drake Baldwin’s June home run against the San Francisco Giants, also at Truist Park.
Montes, who entered the season as the Mariners’ No. 5-ranked prospect, per The Athletic’s Keith Law, earned a call-up when rosters expanded Sept. 1. He opened his career going 2-for-4 in his debut, including a home run. In doing so, he became the first Mariners player since Ichiro Suzuki to have multiple hits in their debut and only the third in franchise history with multiple hits and multiple RBIs, joining Shane Monahan and Al Chambers.
As if that weren’t noteworthy enough, Montes and Ichiro share the same birthday: Oct. 22.
“Amazing, man,” Montes told reporters after his debut. “I’m trying to be me, be myself — like they told me and like I learned. I give it my 100 percent, no matter what happens.”
In getting the call to The Show, Montes joined right-hander Kade Anderson (MLB’s No. 1-ranked prospect), Colt Emerson (Seattle’s preseason No. 1 prospect) and Michael Arroyo (No. 4 in Seattle’s top 20) as Mariners prospects to make their debut in 2026.
The quartet gives Seattle a young core to continue to build around, alongside catcher Cal Raleigh, center fielder Julio Rodríguez and a bevy of starters who have established themselves at the big-league level.
Seattle, which claimed the AL West crown last season, opened play Tuesday six games back of the AL’s third and final wild-card spot. FanGraphs estimated its playoff odds at 5.6 percent, a massive dip after the Mariners at one point led the AL West before seeing their play decline.
Herald writer Aaron Coe contributed to this report.
