Lazaro Montes

Montes, a high-pedigree, 6-foot-5 lefty slugger from Cuba who turned 19 this offseason, looks as promising as he could realistically look on paper and on video. The main reservation with pushing him all the way up prospect rankings is that his hit tool has not been tested by advanced pitching. He got off to a slow start in his first five games of Arizona Complex League action, but Montes hit .313/.445/.586 with 13 home runs, an 18.0 BB% and a 24.0 K% in 64 games across the ACL and Single-A. The Yordan Alvarez comps come naturally, given their nationality, tools and near identical bodies at the same age. Montes has explosive, violent bat speed that could produce 80-grade game power when it's all said and done. While he has always been at least 50 percent better than the average hitter in the leagues he has played in, Montes' strikeout rate has never been below 25 percent. He could finish the year as a top-10 fantasy prospect or outside the top 100, depending on how much contact he makes at High-A and Double-A. Read Past Outlooks