The Mariners Unveiled Their Switch-Pitcher Flamethrower Last Night And He Almost Doesn't Seem Real
Everyone meet Jurrangelo Cijntje. If you're not a diehard baseball or Mariners fan you probably have no clue who he is but boy are you in a for a treat. Drafted out of Mississippi State with the 15th pick in the 2024 draft and has a chance to be the most electric player from his draft class. Why you ask? Well he can throw mid-90s using both hands. We've got a switch pitcher on our hands!
You remember Pat Venditte who pitched a few years in the bigs, he would go back and forth between hands but he didn't have the heat that Cijntje has. 95 from the right side and 92 from the left side is what we saw last night in Seattle's Spring Breakout game which features top prospects of the teams playing, no doubt Cijntje was the talk of the night for Seattle.
After flipping his glove back and forth from lefty to a righty a few times, his night was over. Not a bad outing for Cijntje either, 2 innings pitched, 2 hits, 1 run, 2 walks, 2 Ks. Got his work in and faced some tough hitters, including Travis Bazzana who was taken #1 overall in 2024.
He’ll likely stick mostly to starting games from the right side, but this is kind of uncharted territory. He's a super special player with mid-90s heat from both sides, you don't ever really see that. The mid-90s is fine but when you realize he turned it up to 97 to strike out Bazzana to end his outing REALLY gets you going. A guy throwing that hard from both sides just doesn't seem real.
It's almost like some Savannah Bananas act, a guy throwing with both hands, but he won't be singing and dancing mid-game, he'll be coming to a big league ballpark near you sometime soon. A super special talent that he may not see again, sure we have the guys who can throw from both sides but not with that velo. If he can stay healthy and command his stuff he could be an incredibly dangerous reliever. He's perfect for the late inning cat and mouse game with the pinch hitting and stuff, batters never have an advantage when he's on the bump. An incredibly talented and unique player Seattle has here, he'll be a fun guy to keep an eye on for years if he stays healthy and keeps chucking.