Making Julio Rodríguez appear short is a task usually reserved for basketball players and Aaron Judge, but when all six-feet-five of Lazaro Montes amble through the complex in Peoria, for a brief while Julio is by default not the tallest—nor the loudest—in attendance.
Not that Lazaro cares. He seeks out the Mariners’ superstar centerfielder, eager to catch up in rapid-fire Spanish, trade jokes and most importantly, pick the brain of a player whose career he’d like to emulate.
It’s something he had several opportunities to do during spring training; the Mariners complex in Peoria houses the big-leaguers on one side and the minor-leaguers on the other, with shared facilities in between, making it easy for the 19-year-old Montes to connect with the older and wiser Julio (23 years of age).