Photo: Michael Wade/Icon Sportswire

Skill Grade Grade
RHP LHP
Fastball 60 50
Slider 55 55
Curveball 50
Changeup 55
Control 50 45
Future Value 55 40

Name: Jurrangelo Cijntje (pronounced SAIN-ja)

College: Mississippi State University

Drafted by: Seattle Mariners

Bio: B/B 5-11, 200 lbs.

DOB: 05/31/2003

Written by Brandon Tew

Analysis:

Jurrangelo Cijntje is the most unique pitcher in baseball, throwing hard mid to upper-90s fastballs with his right arm and low-90s fastballs with his left. The switch-pitcher has incredible talent and is just starting to scratch the surface of his potential.

Born in the Netherlands and raised in Curaçao, Cijntje learned to throw with both arms at a young age when his dad would drive nails into a baseball and have him throw the DIY weighted ball at a tire. He often left his left-handed glove at home so he could use his father’s catcher mitt and work on throwing from right-handed. Cijntje must have been onto something because he blossomed into a talented right-handed pitcher. 

Cijntje continued to hone his craft with both arms and added arm strength and command. After high school in Miami he unleashed his talent on the SEC where he took a major step forward in his sophomore season on the mound.

College Career:

Cijntje pitched for the Mississippi State Bulldogs for two seasons. He had up-and-down moments during his freshman season, but while starting in the weekend rotation he would flash potential. A 5 ⅔ innings start of 1-run ball against Ole Miss was the real standout performance during SEC play in 2023.

However; Cijntje finished with an ERA north of eight and while supremely talented, he could never get his walks down enough to be effective (34 in 50 innings).

Fast forward to 2024 and Cijntje started to dial in his mechanics from both sides of the plate and was more direct to the plate from the right side. He consistently threw more strikes allowing his pitches to play inside the zone. He had a few starts with more walks, but down the stretch of SEC play Cijntje began to throw more from the right side. He used the left arm only as a matchup problem for left-handed hitters.

While he limited home run damage more frequently in his sophomore campaign, cutting his HR/9 from 2.2 to 1.1 in 2024 there’s still a susceptibility to the long ball. This can be ironed out but T Mobile Park is a pitcher’s ballpark, Cijntje should enjoy pitching in.

Year ERA IP K% BB% K-BB%
2023 8.10 50.0 26.5% 14% 12%
2024 3.67 90 2/3 30% 8% 22%

Pitching Mechanics:

Cijntje starts with his body and feet angled comfortably standing with his feet shoulder-width apart and his glove in front of his belt. As he steps with his left foot he turns, facing third base.

Then he turns his back foot parallel and in rhythm with tiny taps as he pauses his left foot. Moving into his leg kick he creates a significant weight shift forward during his drift. He also counter-rotates his hips as he slightly turns his front half toward second base.

His lead leg reaches peak lift around his chest and straightens out fully as he brings it down. He then stacks his weight over his backside. Although he does not get into a deep hinge position, he still rides his back hip down the slope.

Coming into a landing position his shoulders are level and his arm is a tad late at times to get to the flip-up position. (With an arm at a 90-degree angle at the footstrike). However; what Cijntje does very well is pulling his glove across his body, creating a good rotation of his front side. As his foot fully braces the impact, he gets his arm to 90 degrees eventually with this tiny delay in the sequence.

Even if his arm is a little behind, he clears his body well and then brings the arm through. He has a great amount of hip-shoulder separation and he unwinds the energy his body has coiled up efficiently.

Cijntje lands in a tiny cross-body action with his front foot barely closed. The separation and stretch allow him to transfer positive energy to ball release. Cijntje could clean up some of the checkpoints in his delivery but he does look natural and the delivery from both the right and left looks smooth.

There are also very similar movement patterns from both sides displaying his athleticism. From the left, he is more cross-fire rather than directionally towards the plate.

High School Mechanics Side by Side

Arsenal RHP:

Fastball:

Cijntje’s fastball has great traits in terms of movement with good carry and arm-side movement from a lower slot.  As a pitcher shorter than six feet in height, he’s throwing out of a traditional ¾ arm slot and still has a low release height that helps his fastball stay flat at the top of the zone.

From his right arm the pitch profiles more at 94-95 mph but he did run the pitch up to 97 and even 98 mph. The pitch shape plays best at the top of the zone where it stays above the barrel of hitters and he held velo deep into starts.

The command of the pitch fluctuates more because of the timing of his delivery as he sprays the fastball both down and up, but in 2024, he threw strikes with the pitch more consistently, flashing average control. 

It’s more about getting the ball up in a good spot rather than down and middle of the zone. The more Cijntje pitches the better the control should get. Once he fully understands his movement patterns, especially from the right side, his control should continue to improve.

Cijntje has also dabbled with a sinker that could be useful in towards righties but it sits in the same velocity band as his changeup. Moving it more consistently into the 93 mph range rather than 90-92 mph and having his changeup sit 88 mph might provide a wrinkle for hitters. 

The Mariners have an entire rotation of plus fastballs and all of them have attempted to add a sinker. Cijntje should have the usage of that pitch jump up if Seattle finds it useful to incorporate.

Slider:

Cijntje’s slider is very intriguing for the Mariners’ pitching development. He has a feel for spinning the ball and would throw lower-end sliders around 85 mph with more depth. He also flashes more of a cutter with lift at 89-90 mph.

This sometimes felt like intentional manipulation depending on matchups and pitch-to-pitch variance during a start. He threw more of a cutter early to RHHs in his last collegiate start against Virginia in game two of the Super Regionals.

This feel for the slider could create a separation in the pitch either creating a sweeper to go with a gyro slider, or trying to squeeze out a sweeper, gyro, and cutter. 

His propensity for spin should help him create above-average offerings no matter what Seattle decides to do and more consistent shapes could help his command as well.

Changeup:

Cijntje’s changeup is odd in that it gets a lot of in-zone whiffs, rather than chases. With his hand speed and deception, he gets hitters to swing over the pitch consistently. He also uses the pitch early in counts to speed up the bat, at times following the changeup with a fastball increasing the margin of error for fastball misses. 

He doesn’t throw the pitch for enough strikes right now but does zone the pitch sometimes. Confidence in throwing the pitch right on right is impressive for a college arm. There’s at least an above-average changeup, maybe even plus, as a real weapon to both righties and lefties.

Curveball:

It’s important to point out that  Cijntje does have a slower breaking ball he throws occasionally. The curve was sprinkled throughout his starts but you can see in the video below that when the Bulldogs were using traditional signs with no one on base the catcher would flash a two-sign.

Curveball usage was more matchup-dependent than anything but it’s at least an average offering in the future, and if the Mariners wants to continue to develop it, maybe they can get more out of the breaker. This will give Cijntje a vertical pitch for opposite-handed hitters as an RHP.

If Cijntje solely focuses on being an RHP he should improve his pitch shapes and maybe even add velo, which would raise the floor of all his pitches including the curve. Cijntje has more untapped potential than most college arms making him a fun pitching prospect to develop in terms of pitch shapes and velocity.

Arsenal LHP:

Fastball:

Cijntje’s fastball from the left sits more 90-91 mph and doesn’t have the same zip through the zone being more dead-zone in shape from a low slot. The fastball mainly sets up his sweeper. Cijntje also lacks control from the left even as a natural lefty. The cross-body mechanics lead to him being off with the fastball more from the left side than the right.

Sweeper: 

A low-80s sweeper bending into the zone from out behind left-handed hitters is Cijntje’s calling card as a southpaw. It’s his putaway pitch when he gets to two strikes. He will also throw the pitch over the plate more than working it out of the zone away. He’s mainly a two-pitch pitcher as a left-handed pitcher but it’s an average fastball and above-average sweeper.

 Cijntje cut down on the number of batters faced as an LHP and saved his unique talent for hitters who struggled against breaking balls mightily. Also, if he’s in a groove as a righty he will let it ride in terms of facing the opposite handedness.

Projection:

Cijntje is a freak athlete on the mound with a unicorn skillset. Pat Venditte laid the foundation for ambidextrous pitching but he would have dreamed about having the arm talent Jurrangelo has. 

As a righty Cijntje has massive upside and the Mainers seemed to love the potential and the fastball traits. Seattle should be able to carve out an MLB role for Cijntje as a solid starter but his switch-pitching is also intriguing as a bullpen option if he never commands the baseball enough to start.

MLB Comp: Luis Severino (RHP but smaller)