Mariners' Cijntje superb in pro debut
This dude is fun.
Seattle Mariners No. 3 prospect and 2024 first-round pick Jurrangelo Cijntje made his professional debut Saturday in Spokane and did not disappoint.
The switch-pitcher went four scoreless innings, yielding one hit and two walks while striking out six. The two walks came as a left-handed pitcher. He threw 36 of 58 pitches for strikes (62%).
Cijntje’s four-seamer sat 95-98 mph throughout, hitting 99 mph a handful of times and touching 100 twice per radar guns via scouts in attendance. The stadium gun registered a 101.
As a right-hander, Cjintje was outstanding, commanding his fastball to both sides of the plate and mixing in two breaking balls, one with sweep he tunneled off the heater and the other more of a curveball he bent in the strike zone for called strikes.
Both bases on balls came in his final inning. His left-handed delivery came unraveled a bit — which is to be expected since it’s not only his less-used set of mechanics but his less-effective side — but he kept it together from the right to get out of the inning unscathed.
Cijntje thoroughly overmatched the Colorado Rockies’ High-A affiliate in this one and put the circuit on notice. The stuff and command should allow him to knife through the level, with workload management the only thing holding him back from racing through the minors.
I’ve made it known I generally don’t start my trek around the system until May due to weather and have joked once I get to Everett Cijtnje won’t be there. But it’s only half a joke, because, well, damn.
Everything’s above-average to plus from the right side, and his potential to switch arms to combat left-handed batters is at least intriguing if not a path to battling lefty sticks for the next 15 years.
There’s no question Cijntje is a future major leaguer. The questions remaining are ‘when?’ and ‘how good?’ Time will tell, but if you take nothing else from reading this, trust me on one thing:
If you live in the area and want to see the Mariners’ top pitching prospect in an AquaSox uniform, don’t wait.
Damn!