Mariners No. 4 prospect Lazaro Montes returns as a familiar face on MLB Pipeline’s Prospect Team of the Week

MLB Pipeline’s Prospect Team of the Week for June 8, 2026 brought with it a sense of déjà vu. Six of the players honored are returning names from earlier this season, including three who have already appeared on the Team of the Week once or twice before. In that mix, the Mariners’ No. 4 prospect, Lazaro Montes, was selected for his second time of the year, a reminder of how quickly his power has become part of the Mariners’ minor-league timeline.

Montes is listed as an outfielder/designated hitter in the Pipeline release, where he is credited as the top Seattle representative among the week’s prospect performances. MLB Pipeline’s program is built around players ranked among their organization’s Top 30 prospects on Pipeline’s lists, and it is restricted to Minor League players who are not currently in the Major Leagues. That framework matters for understanding what these selections report, they are not built around one-off games from unranked players, but around prospects the organizations and Pipeline already view as in the mix for future roles.

The Pipeline write-up connects Montes to a broader theme across the league’s minor levels: consistency strong enough to bring players back into the spotlight more than once. Alongside Montes, the same release names other repeat honorees across multiple organizations, including Cubs catcher Owen Ayers, Blue Jays corner infielder Sean Keys, Giants outfielder Bo Davidson, and Guardians outfielder Alfonsin Rosario, as well as Cubs infielder Jefferson Rojas. The structure of the honor makes it easier to track which prospects are not just having a busy week, but building momentum over time.

For Seattle, the Montes case is particularly notable because his season has leaned heavily into the kind of offense that plays even as the rest of Double-A develops. The Seattle Times reported that Montes hit four home runs in his first four games in June and that he ranked near the top of the Texas League with 16 home runs at Double-A Arkansas. It also highlighted how unusual his splits have been, with a markedly different production profile at home versus on the road, in part shaped by the Travelers’ home environment being widely regarded as pitcher-friendly.

Taken together, the Team of the Week recognition and the local reporting suggest a prospect who is stacking results rather than riding one prolonged burst. Pipeline’s selection adds weight because it places Montes into a curated group based on a season-long prospect ranking and recent performance. Meanwhile, the Seattle Times’ account offers more texture about how the power has been arriving in bunches, including fast starts in a month that can quickly separate in-form hitters from the rest.

The question for the Mariners is not whether Montes can do damage in a single week, it is whether the current stretch is repeatable as he faces deeper scouting and tighter at-bats. The “returning honorees” angle from MLB Pipeline implies that several organizations are in that same evaluation phase, where clubs want to see whether the traits that produced weekly recognition translate into the longer grind of a full Double-A season.

What to watch next is how Montes’ approach holds as June progresses and whether the Double-A level continues to fit his developmental needs. The Team of the Week is temporary by design, but repeat selections tend to mark prospects who are forcing evaluators to keep adjusting their internal timelines. For Seattle, Montes’ second mention in as many turns keeps him near the front of the organization’s conversation as a future power bat option, one whose current form is earning notice beyond a brief hot spell.