"This past December at the winter meetings in Dallas, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman marveled over the just-breaking news that Albert Pujols was signing with the Angels for $254 million.

He told New York reporters, "I don't know him (Pujols) personally, but I see what he does with that bat, and it's Montero-like."

Cashman was being playful (mostly), but Seattle is banking there's truth behind the hyperbole that has followed Jesus Montero since the Yankees signed him out of Venezuela in 2006 at age 16.

From virtually the day he arrived in the states, Montero has been heralded as The Next Big Thing, the latest candidate to join the Yankees' seemingly endless succession of marquee talent.

Pujols is far from the only superstar to whom Montero has been regularly compared — even though he has played just 18 games in the major leagues, all of them coming last September.

Baseball America editor Jim Callis has ranked him ahead of the much-hyped Bryce Harper as a hitting prospect. When the Yankees gave him a $1.6 million bonus to sign as a teenager, scouts said he possessed the strength of Bo Jackson. Yankees manager Joe Girardi took a gander at Montero's opposite-field power in spring training and said the kid reminded him of "a young Alex."

You can guess which Alex he was talking about. A perusal of articles on Montero also found comparisons to Miguel Cabrera, Frank Thomas, Manny Ramirez, Mike Piazza, Robinson Cano, Edgar Martinez and Joe Mauer.

Pretty heady stuff, and now the Mariners, not the Yankees, are the ones poised to reap the benefits of Montero's talent as he nears the point of major-league readiness. They acquired the slugging catcher, now 22, in a trade Friday that resulted in All-Star pitcher Michael Pineda heading to the Yankees. The deal won't become official until physicals are completed."