By Charles Hamaker 

Seattle, WA – There’s a lot to be excited about regarding new Seattle Mariners draft pick Jurrangelo Cijntje (jurr-angelo SAIN-jah), and it spans beyond just the incredible fact that he’s an ambidextrous pitcher. Jurrangelo has made waves before due to that last fact, but if you want to educate yourself on the potential next big pitcher in the Mariners system, we’ve compiled some key things to know about Cijntje and expanded further on quotes from the media availabilities we’ve had with him and Seattle’s Director of Amateur Scouting, Scott Hunter following the news of his selection on Sunday afternoon. Before we get to see him join a Mariners affiliate at some point, here’s what we know to this point about Jurrangelo Cijntje! 

Jurrangelo Cijntje, Seattle Mariners first round pick in the 2024 MLB Draft, meets MLB commissioner Rob Manfred on stage after hearing his name called. (Photos by Richard Rodriguez)

Growing up as the son of a pro 

For Jurrangelo, his baseball journey began at the age of five. Born in The Hague, Netherlands, Cijntje grew up as the son of a professional baseball player, Mechangelo, who was a catcher and played in the Netherlands. While Jurrangelo was naturally a left-hander, he wanted to emulate his father so he started “forgetting” his glove at home so that he could use hid dad’s right-handed glove. While he played catcher and shortstop growing out, there was some ability being shown to pitch. Because of the intuition shown by Jurrangelo, his father decided to give him a drill to help improve his accuracy as a pitcher: Mechangelo hammered nails into baseballs, and then had Jurrangelo throw at a tire to try to get the ball to stick, a drill that was designed to improve his accuracy. The switch-pitching seemed to work out well, as the only truly ambidextrous pitcher in modern Major League history, Pat Venditte, reached out to Cijntje on Instagram after learning about him and his exploits. Cijntje throws significantly harder than Venditte, who predicted that Cijntje would be better than the five-year big leaguer was, and if the Mariners pitching lab is able to work their magic with Jurrangelo, he will be. After his father’s professional baseball career ended in the Netherlands, Jurrangelo’s family moved to Curaçao, where the world first really began to know about Cijntje.

Little League World Series infamy 

During the Little League World Series, Jurrangelo caught some attention due to his switch pitching. There have been many fun and unique moments that have come out of the LLWS, including more than a few memes and another star pitcher, and Cijntje’s time with Curaçao added another fun instance during the tournament. At 12-years-old, back in the 2016 Little League World Series upper round one contest against South Korea with him pitching, the bases were loaded, and he was in a bind during the first inning. Jurrangelo switched gloves in that first inning to throw right-handed after he had walked a run in with that left hand (walking four batters with that left hand, in fact), and although he didn’t completely get out of the inning unscathed, Cijntje struck the next two batters out. It wasn’t all miraculous as Jurrangelo barely hit a batter (The ball glanced off the South Korean players jersey) with two outs to score another run but did get a grounder to himself to end the inning and the incredible glove-switch moment had taken place.  

Not only did Jurrangelo have that captivating top of the first inning, but he was also the leadoff hitter for Curaçao as well so there wasn’t much time for him to sit down after pitching with both arms during that half of the inning. Jurrangelo grounded sharply to the middle of the infield on an 0-1 pitch, and his speed helped him make the throw to first perhaps more rushed than it needed to be. How rushed, you may ask? So rushed that the shortstop’s throw to first missed the glove and hit Cijntje in the inner thigh of his right leg, but he was safe! Although he was able to get up and try to run it out, Jurrangelo did leave in the bottom of the first for a pinch runner before returning to pitch in the top of the second. Cijntje had to work through another loaded bases situation in that second inning but was in fact able to do so thanks to a strikeout and a pop out. In the bottom of the third, after a strong top of the third that was by far his best on the mound at that point in the day, Jurrangelo dropped a single into centerfield for Curaçao’s first hit of the day. Jurrangelo ended up facing 22 batters, striking out six, and recording a hit before his day on the mound was done and he moved to shortstop. Curaçao’s run didn’t end with that loss as the tournament was double elimination, and they did beat Japan before falling to Australia in lower round two.

High School 

Before getting into Jurrangelo’s time as a Bulldog at Mississippi State, taking a brief peek at his high school career is worth a note considering that he was a two-year letterman at Champagnat Catholic High School in Miami, Florida. As mentioned previously, Cijntje was drafted by the Brewers as a shortstop at the time, Jurrangelo declined to sign with Milwaukee as he had his sights set on going to college at Mississippi State. Cijntje came to Miami to live with a cousin when he was attending Champagnat Catholic High School, and his coach thought he looked good enough to pitch from both sides, per ESPN Jurrangelo impressed at Champagnat, with standout numbers such as a 2.32 ERA, striking out 166 batters and recording a WHIP of 0.86 while ranking as the top BHP in the nation and state of Florida. 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 earned Jurrangelo an invitation to the second annual MLB draft combine in San Diego, where Cijntje made waves as he struck out five of the six hitters he faced in the third inning -- two as a lefty and three as a righty -- giving up a walk as a southpaw. During that time in the showcase, Jurrangelo was working with a 94-96 mph fastball and a 79-80 mph breaking ball with 2600 RPM from the right side, and an 88-92 MPH heater and a 75-76 MPH breaker with 2400 RPM from the left. 

Mississippi State  

Coming off his impressive tenure in high school, Jurrangelo’s first year at Mississippi State wasn’t the best statistically as his ERA sat at 8.10 with a win-loss record of 3-5 across 50 innings of work, which did lead his team. Cijntje had a strikeout to walk ratio of 63-34 in his freshman campaign, with a WHIP of 1.56. His very first appearance of the year came out of the bullpen as he earned the victory by throwing an inning of relief. Looking at that total body of work in his first season wasn’t exactly a train wreck, as his 50 innings of work led his team (as previously mentioned), his 63 strikeouts also 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.  

Jurrangelo’s sophomore year was a big jump in the right direction, as his 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. His eight wins was tied for the most amongst the Mississippi State pitching staff, his strikeouts were the most on the team and fifth most in the SEC, his ERA was the third best amongst the Bulldogs, and he picked up four different honors during that sophomore season (Second team Perfect Game All-American, Second team NCBWA All-American, ABCA/Rawlings South All-Region First team, and SEC Spring Academic Honor Roll). After initially passing up on him in 2022, the Mariners felt confident enough in Cijntje’s growth that they selected him in the first round at 15th overall.  

What’s next? 

Following being selected 15th overall in the first round, Cijntje should have a busy next few weeks as he’ll soon get to meet several of the folks who scouted him and helped make him get selected in the first round by the Mariners. Jurrangelo will remain in Texas to be around the rest of the All-Star week festivities, hopefully getting to spend some time with the two Seattle representatives at the event in Logan Gilbert and Andrés Muñoz, before he will likely fly to the Pacific Northwest to meet some members of the Mariners organization and where he could get some instructions on what will happen next for him and what the franchise may want him to focus on working towards throughout the rest of the calendar year. Like we saw with first round selections Tai Peete, Colt Emerson, and Jonny Farmelo last year, we could see Cijntje join the farm system and start to log his first professional innings, but that’s to see still. He did just get drafted, after all. 

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

Cover photo by Richard Rodriguez.

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