Mariners minor league awards: April 2025
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA - With April in the rear view mirror, our Seattle Mariners have announced their organizational Minor League Award winners for the month via release by Justin Toole, the Seattle Mariners Director of Player Development. Here’s a look into that list which has two new awards on it, including a player that’s currently on the Major League roster and another that could be on it in the future.
Tyler Locklear, infielder: Co-Hitter of the Month
Lazaro Montes, outfielder: Co-Hitter of the Month
Logan Evans, RHP: Pitcher of the Month
Michael Hobbs, RHP: Reliever of the Month
Victor Labrada, outfielder: Baserunner of the Month (new award in 2025)
Austin St. Laurent, infielder: Defensive Player of the Month (new award in 2025)
Tacoma Rainiers first baseman Tyler Locklear during the teams Wendesday, April 23rd, 2025 “Copa de la Diversión” game against the Sugar Land Space Cowboys at Cheney Stadium a 10-3 win for Tacoma. (Photos by Aimlee Lou Arnold-Worthington for Circling Seattle Sports)
Tyler Locklear is the Mariners number eleven prospect in the organization, currently at 24-years of age. Across the month of April, Locklear hit for a .317 average with 12 runs, eleven doubles, two home runs, 17 RBI, 12 walks, two hit by pitches, and five stolen bases while getting on base at a .400 clip and slugging .485 in 26 games with the Mariners AAA affiliate Tacoma Rainiers. He hit safely in 17 of 26 games, 10 of which were multi-hit occasions. Locklear recorded a season-high four hits on the Rainiers Sunday, April 6th game at the Reno Aces as well as Tacoma’s Saturday, April 26th contest versus Sugar Land.
The 6-foot-2 right handed first baseman is Seattle’s top first baseman prospect in the organization and is largely viewed as the future of the position for the Mariners. It appeared as though it could be the time to shine for Locklear when he made his Major League debut with Seattle back on June 9th, 2024 at Kansas City and appeared in 16 games, but he hit a measly .156 with three runs, one double, two home runs, three RBI, three walks and one stolen base. The numbers aren’t great, including his strikeout rate, at the Major League level, but it’s also a smaller sample size. With the struggles of Donovan Solano and Rowdy Tellez at the first base position so far this year for the Mariners, you have to wonder when Seattle will make the call for Locklear to come back up to the bigs.
Seattle Mariners outfield prospect Lazaro Montes during a Spring Training game this year. (Photos by Eric Hiller for Circling Seattle Sports)
The number two overall prospect in the Seattle Mariners system, the 20-year old Lazaro Montes batted for a .289 average with 14 runs, five doubles, three triples, five home runs, 14 RBI, 20 walks and two stolen bases while getting on base at a .413 clip and slugging .585 in 23 games for High-A Everett. Montes had a slow start to his tenure with the AquaSox when he made the jump from Low-A Modesto, and had somewhat of a slower beginning to this season, but has really started to heat up as of late.
Montes hit safely in 17 of 23 games and reached base safely in all four plate appearances on Everett’s season opener against Spokane on April 4th, during which he went 2-for-2 with two runs, blasting a home run, while adding an RBI and two walks.
The 6-foot-5 outfielder is ranked as the 39th prospect in MLB’s Top 100 by MLB.com and was signed as an international free agent in 2022. He’s very exciting on the hitting side and surely wants to improve upon his play in the outfield, but there’s time for him to do so and it’s not like he’s egregiously bad there right now anyway. Montes is an electrifying player and has the personality to pair with his physical abilities.
Seattle Mariners right handed pitching prospect Logan Evans throwing a bullpen at T-Mobile Park the day before his MLB debut, on Saturday, April 26th, 2025. (Photos by Eric Hiller for Circling Seattle Sports)
Seattle’s number ten overall prospect in the system, 23-year old Logan Evans made five starts for AAA affiliate Tacoma, posting a 1-1 record with a 3.86 ERA (28 H, 25.2 IP) with four walks and 23 strikeouts during his time with the Rainiers ahead of being called up by the Mariners to make his debut following Logan Gilbert going on the 15-day injured list. Evans has made five-consecutive appearances of at least 5.0 IP, and recorded seven strikeouts in two of those appearances. His deep arsenal of pitches makes him a very intriguing pitcher for the organization going forward, and it appears he’ll be with the big league club for a bit longer with Gilbert down due to injury.
Evans earned a promotion to the Majors following his performance in Tacoma, making his Major League debut with the Mariners on April 27th versus the Miami Marlins in the rubber match between the two teams to help Seattle win the series. He recorded the win after tossing 5.0 innings and allowing two runs (Both earned) on two hits (One homer allowed) with three walks and three strikeouts.
Reliever and 25-year old Michael Hobbs went 1-0 with two saves and a 0.87 ERA (One earned run across 10.1 innings pitched) with three walks and 17 strikeouts in seven appearances for the AA affiliate Arkansas Travelers during the month. The right-hander recorded a strikeout in all seven of his outings, recording multiple strikeouts in six of those seven.
Hobbs spent four seasons (2021-24) of his young career in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization, before being acquired by the Mariners in a minor league trade from the Mets, where he was briefly, on March 22nd, 2025.
25-year old outfield prospect Victor Labrada went 9-for-9 in stolen bases for AA affiliate Arkansas, earning himself the first-ever Mariners Minor League Baserunner of the Month award for his performance with the Travelers. Labrada recorded a career-high 49 stolen bases last season in 101 games between Arkansas and High-A Everett.
22-year old Austin St. Laurent appeared in 21 games with Low-A affiliate Modesto at third base (Nine games), second base (Six games) and shortstop (Six games). The 2024 MLB Draft selection (14th round) earned himself the first-ever Defensive Player of the Month award for the Mariners organization, committing just two errors across 167 innings in the field and accumulating 4.8 defensive runs saved.
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