By Charles Hamaker 

Seattle, WA – With their first selection in this year's MLB Draft, the Seattle Mariners decided to go with what could be an extremely enticing player if things pan out, as they picked switch pitcher Jurrangelo Cijntje (jurr-angelo SAIN-jah) out of Mississippi State University. Coming into their first-round selection, at the 15th overall pick in this year's draft, it was largely theorized that the Mariners were going to select a pitcher and they did just that. Seattle decided to go with Cijntje, a pitcher that could be one of the more unique players in all of baseball if he continues to throw with both of his arms as he’s done throughout his career to this point. Given the festivities and flare of hosting All-Star weekend last year, it seemed as though the Mariners were going to be able to return to a sense of normalcy with the draft, but they’ve opted to go with a pick that’s done more than just stay with the status quo. 

Get to know Jurrangelo briefly 

Cijntje is a fun story for multiple reasons that we go over in our article dedicated to getting to know him, but we’ll do our best to get you up to speed with the newest member of the Mariners farm system with the big moments or at least the ones you’ll surely be hearing about in the near future. Jurrangelo first started to get some attention from the baseball world, outside of being the son of a professional baseball player in the Netherlands, when he was playing with Curaçao in the Little League World Series back in 2016. From there, Cijntje did so well during his time in high school at Champagnat Catholic School in Hialeah, Florida, that he was selected by the Milwaukee Brewers in the 18th round of the 2022 Major League Baseball draft. Jurrangelo didn’t sign with the Brewers at the time, and instead decided to enroll at Mississippi State University to play college baseball, where he had committed to play during his senior year. That’s where we get to his time with the Bulldogs, where we’ll look further into Cijntje and why Seattle felt excited to take him at the fifteenth pick in the first round this year. 

Jurrangelo Cijntje during his two years at Mississippi State University, as a member of the Bulldogs baseball team. (Photos from Mississippi State University)

Body of work 

It’s fun to look at the sort of improvement that Jurrangelo has made over his high school career into college, looking at how things began back with him wanting to emulate his father which started the switch-pitching. His numbers and potential impressed the Milwaukee Brewers enough to draft him out of Champagnat Catholic High School in Miami, Florida, but Cijntje wasn’t interested in that at the time and decided to go through with his commitment at Mississippi State University, becoming a Bulldog. Jurrangelo was highly regarded as a pitcher, despite being selected by the Brewers as a shortstop, and while only ranked as the 34th best pitcher in the nation and ninth best prospect in the state of Florida, Perfect Game did rank him as a 10/10 prospect before he headed off to become a Bulldog. His impressive time in High School didn’t translate into immediate results in college, as his freshman season saw him post an ERA of 8.10 with a win-loss record of 3-5 across a team leading 50 innings of work. Overall, across his body of work in his first season, things weren't all bad, as his 63 strikeouts led the team, he held opponents to an average of .238 on the season, and he was still getting used to the SEC, so it isn’t necessarily something to look too deeply into or be super concerned about unless he didn’t bounce back, and boy did he bounce back in his next season. Jurrangelo’s win-loss record improved to 8-2, his ERA dropped to 3.67, and he did that in 90.2 innings of work. His strikeout to walk ratio went to 113-30, and his WHIP dropped to 1.10 to round out a bunch of statistics that saw strong improvement across the board. Cijntje impressed so much that he earned four honors during that Sophomore season, and it gave the Mariners enough confidence in his improvement that they felt comfortable selecting him in the first round.  

Why this pick 

There are some minor concerns with this pick for two different reasons: the pick itself, and the fact that the Mariners went with a pitcher in this selection. In regard to Jurrangelo himself, there really shouldn’t be too much concern given the sort of flashes he’s shown as a switch-pitcher or even just as a right-handed pitcher. Cijntje’s fastball is electric from the right side (Sound familiar in comparison to other Seattle starting pitchers?), his slider has been a plus tool for him, and the changeup that he’s developing has the Mariners very excited. With the sort of power that Jurrangelo has been building in his lower body to support the needs he’ll have if he’s going to throw from both sides, or even to make up for his “smaller" stature as a pitcher at 5’11”, Seattle pitching development coaches are already very excited about the prospect of adding to Cijntje’s repertoire and building up his game throughout his time in the Mariners farm system.  

Looking at the concerns that some have about Seattle drafting a pitcher with their first-round pick in relation to the team's current offensive struggles at the major league level, there is no real conversation here. While it’s undeniable that the Mariners have struggled at the Major League level, their farm system is loaded with hitting talent from top to bottom whether it’s names in Modesto like Colt Emerson, Jonny Farmelo, or Tai Peete up to Tacoma where Tyler Locklear and Jonatan Clase reside, and that’s not even mentioning Felnin Celesten down in the Arizona Complex League. While yes, trades for proven bats this year ahead of the deadline will likely mean several of those prospects in the system will be moved, there’s a ton of future talent in the pipeline, so drafting a hitter in the first round wasn’t a necessity. Taking a look at the other side of the farm system, the Mariners are lacking top pitching depth (There are names like Emerson Hancock and Logan Evans in the pipeline, with a few others becoming real prospects), and we will likely see Seattle address that throughout the rest of this draft.  

What’s next? 

Following their first selection in the 2024 MLB Draft, our Seattle Mariners have another pick on day one, in the second round at pick number 55. Considering that they did in fact go with the collegiate arm in the first round as many theorized, it’ll be interesting to see if the organization opts to go with another strong hitting prospect like they did last year with their higher picks, and it seems likely given that the Mariners may be losing a few of their hitting prospects soon in a trade to acquire an MLB level contributor to help Seattle’s sputtering offense. Considering that the Mariners went in a direction that is somewhat unprecedented, it could be that we see the Mariners continue to go with pitching to restock their system with homegrown pitching just as they had done with the names of Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Bryce Miller, and Bryan Woo. 

Check out Circling Seattle Sports’ previous Seattle Mariners articles here.

Check out Circling Seattle Sports’ previous articles with writing by Charles Hamaker here.

Cover photo by Mississippi State Athletics.

Support the work of Circling Seattle Sports by checking out our merchandise!