Taylor Ward was supposed to give the Mariners a boost after arriving at the trade deadline from the Orioles. Instead, Seattle has gotten almost nothing from him, and that reality is starting to put real pressure on the club to turn to Lazaro Montes.
Ward’s track record made the move make sense. He wasn’t coming in off the kind of season that turns heads the same way 36 homers and 103 RBI do, but he still led the AL in walks and posted a .839 OPS against lefties last year with the Angels.
In Seattle, though, the production has fallen apart. He’s just 6-for-44 with four walks, no home runs and a .390 OPS, and his availability has been limited too, with leg soreness keeping him out of six of the Mariners’ last 18 games.
That opening is exactly why Montes keeps coming up. The 21-year-old has been tearing through the minors, and his season has only gotten louder since he reached Triple-A Tacoma. He already has a career-high 37 home runs, including 12 after the promotion, and August has been especially nasty: a 1.140 OPS and 173 wRC+ so far.
Lazaro Montes does it again! 37th home run for Laz. pic.twitter.com/Cbb4386UHI
- Mariners Minors (@MiLBMariners) August 23, 2026
Montes has long been a name Mariners fans have circled, and the argument for his promotion has been building for a while. He’s the two-time reigning Ken Griffey Jr.
Hitter of the Year, and he was also co-Co-Hitter of the Year in 2023. Still, the national prospect picture hasn’t matched the production.
MLB Pipeline has him at No. 56 on its top 100 list, and the old knock has been familiar: huge power, shaky defense, and the label of a one-dimensional hitter.
That version of Montes is starting to look outdated. His contact numbers have improved, with a .234 average in Double-A Arkansas before he hit .286 in Tacoma, including .320 in August. The bat is still the headliner - the kind of power that can change a game in one swing - but he’s no longer just selling power alone.
There’s also more to the profile than the box score. Montes has handled right field well enough thanks to a strong arm, and he brings the kind of energy that shows up in the field and on the bases. That matters for a Mariners team that could use a jolt, especially with Josh Naylor having already shown what that kind of spark can look like after arriving from Arizona last July.
The roster puzzle is the hard part. One idea would be to designate Ward for assignment and give Victor Robles more work as a right-handed bat and fourth outfielder.
But the more realistic path may be patience, with Montes potentially waiting until rosters expand on Sept. 1.
The problem is that waiting has a cost. Seattle has a hot bat sitting in the minors right now, and the longer the Mariners hold off, the more they risk wasting it.
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