Limestone pebbles, father’s love push Lazaro Montes

ATLANTA – Growing up in a small, humble pueblo on the east side of Cuba, Seattle Mariners prospect Lazaro Montes vowed to be a better athlete than his father, Yosmel Montes, one of the best hammer throwers in Cuban track and field history.

The elder Montes countered with benchmarks, his list of gold medals and even a youth Pan-Am Games record. Then Yosmel Montes handed his son a broomstick and pointed him toward the limestone pebbles that are abundant near the Guanabacoa quarry in the province of La Habana. 

“He would always say, ‘I went to this place and that place,’” Lazaro Montes says of his father. “He traveled to 20-something countries. He would always tell me, ‘I was better than you. At this age I was doing this.’ 

“That was something that motivated me. And I would tell him, ‘OK, when I grow up I will be better than you.’ Thank God that now, he’s telling me, ‘Wow, you’ve accomplished a lot, but you still have a ways to go.’”

Hammer time

Unlike most of the players at the All-Star Futures Game on Saturday afternoon at Truist Park, Lazaro Montes wasn’t inspired by baseball stars. He was inspired by his father, who was one of Cuba’s top youth hammer throwers in the 1990s and early 2000s. 

Yosmel Montes won a gold medal at the Central American Games, a gold at the Pan-Am Games. He also set a national record at the 2004 Junior Olympics in Cuba. He won a gold medal and set a meet record in Chile at the Youth Pan-Am Games in 1995.

At 6-foot-5 and 210 pounds, Lazaro long ago surpassed his father as the best athlete in the family, according to both of them and Lazaro’s mother, Martha Iliana Hernandez. 

“They’ve been in this competition, and it’s a beautiful competition,” Hernandez says. “My husband is always supporting him and telling him he’s great. (Yosmel) would inspire him to be big. I don’t want to compare him to anybody, but I wanted him to compete with his father, supporting him and raising him.”

The family defected from Cuba on April 28, 2018, when Lazaro was only 13 years old. Four years later, the Mariners signed Lazaro with a $2.5 million signing bonus. The bonus was one of that year’s largest for an amateur free agent in Latin America.

Yordan Alvarez comparisons

The outfield prospect has been compared favorably to fellow Cuban slugger Yordan Alvarez, the three-time All-Star and 2019 American League Rookie of the Year. They both are among the rare baseball players who hit from the left side but throw with their right. 

Coaches in Cuba tried to make Lazaro a switch-hitter. Yosmel had other ideas. And although the family didn’t have much money to spend on baseballs, they had plenty of limestone pebbles in their hometown of Barreras, a small farming community in Guanabacoa in the province of La Habana. 

“Hitting rocks with a broomstick, that’s where he started the baseball process,” Yosmel says. “That’s why he bats left-handed. He used to be a switch-hitter. But when we’d get to training, I would put him to bat with his left only. He’d do 100 to 150 swings with his left.”

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From the time he was 7 years old, Lazaro would pick up a limestone pebble, toss it up and then swing. Swing after swing, swing after swing, up to 150 swings a day. All left-handed under the watchful eye of his dad.

“My husband dedicated himself to him,” Hernandez said of Yosmel. “He always wanted him to be a ballplayer. That sport fascinated (Lazaro). Since he was a boy, thank God, he loved the sport.”

Lazaro Montes nears majors

The friendly father-son rivalry plateaued shortly before the family moved to the Dominican Republic. 

“By 12 years old he started beating me in running, started beating me in batting,” Yosmel says proudly. “At 6, 7 years old I started to instill that aggressiveness, that positive aggressiveness.”

That swing has Lazaro close to the majors. He was promoted to Class AA Arkansas last month. Lazaro already has five home runs and 11 RBIs over 15 games with the Travelers. Moreover, he has hit 23 home runs with 61 RBIs and a .269 batting average over 82 games between High Class A Everett and Arkansas this season.

Two of his homers this year were monster shots that traveled about 408 feet on consecutive days. He may not throw a hammer like his father once did, but he definitely has a hammer. 

“For me, it’s an honor to think that I’m his inspiration,” Yosmel says. “Because to me, he’s my favorite athlete, my favorite ballplayer and my favorite person.”