The Next Wave: Montes and Rodden go nuclear in Tacoma, Anderson keeps dealing in Arkansas
By Taylor Anderson ·
The Kid From the Left Field Corner Is Taking Over Tacoma
There are weeks where a prospect does enough to check a box, and then there are weeks where the numbers force you to pay attention. Lazaro Montes (AAA, OF, Rank: 3) put up the latter: 10 hits, four home runs, nine RBI, and four walks across 31 plate appearances at Tacoma. He struck out 11 times, which is par for a profile built around power and patience rather than contact, but the damage he did when he connected was something Triple-A pitchers do not forget quickly. Montes arrived at Tacoma just over a month ago after destroying Double-A Arkansas to the tune of a .234/.369/.550 line with 25 home runs in 339 plate appearances. The jump in level has not slowed him down. Over the last 30 days at Triple-A he is slashing .326/.398/.628 with six home runs and eight doubles in 98 plate appearances. That is a 21-year-old dictating terms to the Pacific Coast League.
The profile has always been polarizing because of the swing-and-miss. A 70-grade raw power tool comes attached to a 45 hit tool and a bat path that can get long against sequencing-heavy pitching staffs. The strikeout totals across both levels this year, 145 in 464 combined plate appearances, confirm that the concern is real. But the walks are real too: 68 free passes this season, which means his .369 on-base percentage at the combined level is not an accident. The math here is pretty simple. Montes has 32 home runs between Arkansas and Tacoma before August, and he just turned 21 in March. A second-division left-field regular is the conservative projection; I think the power and patience combination gets him to everyday starter territory if Seattle lets him settle in and work through the swing-and-miss rather than cycling him up and down. The conversation about a September callup feels closer than it did two months ago.
Brock Rodden Has No Business Doing This
By the numbers on paper, Brock Rodden (AAA, SS, Rank: 25) is a 26-year-old up-and-down infielder with a 50 hit tool and a 45 power grade. By the numbers from last week, he went 9-for-25 with five home runs, a triple, a double, and eight RBI. Five home runs in a week from a guy whose entire scouting projection is built around contact and utility is jarring no matter how you slice it. Over the last 30 days, Rodden is slashing .257/.337/.622 with seven home runs and two triples across 83 plate appearances. He went into the season with 19 total home runs in all of professional baseball before 2026; he already has 19 this year through 401 plate appearances at Tacoma. Something is different.
The honest read on Rodden is that the power spike almost certainly outpaces the tool. He is not a 20-home-run guy at the major league level, and the scouting projection of a versatile up-and-down infielder still feels right long term. Zero walks last week against five strikeouts show he is not changing his profile fundamentally; he is just in a stretch where the contact is finding gaps and carrying over the fence. Still, a switch-hitting infielder who can run a little and post a .501 slugging percentage at Triple-A at 26 is a useful phone call away from a big league bench. If the Mariners need a middle-infield callup before September, Rodden has done everything he could possibly do to make that call happen.
Quick Hits
- Kade Anderson (AA, LHP, Rank: 1) · threw 5.1 innings of three-hit, no-run ball with nine strikeouts and no walks. It was his third straight start without allowing an earned run; across those 15 innings he has given up five hits, two walks, and 20 strikeouts with a 0.47 WHIP. The season ERA is 1.13 through 87.2 innings with 128 punchouts. There is not much left to prove at Double-A, and conversations about a Tacoma assignment have to be happening somewhere in the organization.
- Michael Arroyo (AAA, SS, Rank: 4) · drove in seven runs on seven hits, including three home runs and a double, while drawing seven walks against six strikeouts across 31 plate appearances. A 55 hit tool and a compact swing that plays to all fields, the season line sits at .327/.395/.582 at Tacoma through 129 plate appearances. Arroyo reached Triple-A at 21 years old and has not looked overwhelmed for a single month.
- Luke Stevenson (A+, C, Rank: 8) · went 3-for-15 with a homer and four RBI while drawing three walks. The week was modest on contact but the bigger story is the last 30 days: Stevenson is hitting .288/.425/.695 with six home runs and six doubles in 73 plate appearances at Everett. He has 15 home runs on the season with a .410 on-base percentage, and a 60-grade arm paired with an everyday projection at catcher gives him one of the more complete profiles in the system below Double-A.
- Victor Labrada (AAA, CF, Rank: 27) · went 4-for-12 with two home runs and five RBI in limited action. The recent-form numbers are eye-catching, .293/.340/.683 with four home runs over the last 30 days at Tacoma, but they come in a small sample of 47 plate appearances. He is a 60-speed, 55-field center fielder with 30-grade raw power, so the home run pace is almost certainly not sustainable. What is sustainable is the defense and the baserunning, and those tools alone keep him relevant for a fourth-outfielder conversation.
- Luis Suisbel (A+, 3B, Rank: 13) · collected six hits with two home runs and four RBI across 22 plate appearances, though the strikeout concern flared with nine punchouts. He has 14 home runs on the year at Everett and is slugging .569 over his last 18 games. Suisbel's hit tool has always been the limiting factor, and the nine strikeouts in a single week are a reminder that the swing-and-miss is not going away. The power is real; whether the contact gets there remains the central question.
- Jackson Steensma (A, RHP, Rank: 21) · gave up nothing over 3.2 innings with six strikeouts and no walks, his cleanest outing in a month. A 55-grade fastball sitting 95-97 mph gives him a physical foundation that the recent numbers have not reflected; across his last four appearances the ERA stands at 6.23 with 16 hits and five walks in 8.2 innings. The season ERA of 2.73 over 29.2 innings is more representative of what he can do, but the mid-summer wobble is worth watching, especially for a profile projecting to a setup role.
- Nick Becker (A, SS, Rank: 11) · reached base eight times in 18 plate appearances, going 4-for-18 with a double, two RBI, and four walks. He has drawn 56 walks in 280 combined plate appearances between the complex and Inland Empire this season, a rate that would be elite at any level. The hit tool grades at 50 and the swing-and-miss is real, but a 60-speed shortstop who walks this frequently is a prospect worth monitoring through the end of his first full season.
- Juan Rijo (RK, OF, Rank: 12) · went 5-for-19 with a double, two RBI, and three walks in the DSL. The 55 hit tool is the headline for a 17-year-old, and the season slash of .306/.429/.465 with 32 walks against 42 strikeouts in 198 plate appearances backs it up. The power is more projection than production right now, but the feel for the strike zone and the contact rate against DSL pitching give him a legitimate offensive foundation to build on.
- Ace Reese (A, 3B, Rank: 6) · was promoted from the ACL to Inland Empire on August 6 in his first assignment to full-season ball. He has gone 3-for-5 in his first six plate appearances at the A-ball level. A small sample to say the least, but getting him into a full-season environment before the end of the year is the right developmental move regardless of how the first few games look.
- Gregory Pio (RK, OF, Rank: 26) · drew four walks and added two singles in 18 plate appearances, a modest performance by the box score but meaningful in that his 31 walks in 185 plate appearances on the season are the real story for a 17-year-old center fielder with 70-grade speed. The hit tool has to develop, and the last 30 days have not been kind at the plate, but the on-base instincts are already there.