According to Daniel Kramer of MLB.com, the Mariners and first-round pick Jurrangelo Cijntje have reached an agreement on a contract, pending a physical. According to Kramer, the Mississippi State product will receive the entire $4.8809MM slot value for the 15th pick. Seattle also allegedly agreed to an overslot agreement with second-round pick Ryan Sloan Wednesday night.
Cijntje, a switch pitcher, is arguably the most intriguing player in this year’s selection. Cijntje, a native of the Netherlands and one-time Little League World Series competitor with Curacao, is a natural lefty who throws much harder from the right side.
Scouting reports say he has a good slider and mid-upper 90s velocity as a righty. As a lefty, Cijntje sits in the mid 90s and throws a sweepy slider, restricting his work to select matchups. He didn’t pitch left-handed to every lefty hitter and spent the majority of his draft season working from the right side.
Cijntje had an 8.10 ERA in 14 freshman appearances before breaking through as a draft-eligible sophomore. He had a 3.67 earned run average over 90 2/3 innings. He struck out nearly 30% of hitters while walking only 7.9% – a significant improvement from his first college season, when he walked more than 14% of opponents.
Cijntje stated during the draft that he hopes to continue growing from both sides. Kramer reports that the Mariners aim to give him that opportunity. Cijntje has a solid chance of surpassing legendary MLB reliever Pat Venditte as the most successful switch-pitcher in memory. Keith Law of the Athletic noted before the draft that the 21-year-old has the potential to be a #2 starter. According to FanGraphs, Cijntje looks like a back-end starter as a righty, in addition to his matchup work on the left side.
Law ranked Cijntje as the #15 prospect in the class, perfectly matching his draft position. Baseball America ranked him 24th, while FanGraphs had him 34th. In recent years, the Mariners have had a lot of success with college pitching prospects, signing George Kirby, Logan Gilbert, Bryan Woo, and Bryce Miller. Cijntje was the third pitcher taken off the board this season.
Leave a Reply