The top draft pick of the Mariners pitches lefty and righty. Jurrangelo Cijntje wants to keep it up

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Jurrangelo Cijntje wants to keep his options open with the Seattle organization as a pitcher who switches between throwing right-handed and left-handed.

The 15th overall pick by the Mariners in Major League Baseball’s amateur draft Sunday night, Cijntje said there was a reason he threw righty to lefty batters more often with Mississippi State in 2024.

“I had discomfort in my left side in the middle of the season,” Cijntje said. “I was talking to my pitching coach, and he was like, ‘You can just rest now from the left side and you can just focus on the right side.’ Everything is good now.”

The Mariners said they want Cijntje, who was a switch-pitcher for Curacao in the 2016 Little League World Series, to decide how to proceed as a righty and/or lefty as a pro. Cijntje says he would prefer to continue pitching from both sides.

According to his MLB.com draft profile, Cijntje was a natural left-hander who started throwing righty as a 6-year-old to mimic his father, Mechangelo, a former pro baseball player in the Netherlands.

There is some natural righty in him, though. Cijntje says he writes right-handed, while eating is somewhat like pitching — the 21-year-old uses both hands.

Cijntje agrees with scouting reports that say his fastball velocity is better right-handed, in the mid-90 mph range compared to low 90s from the left side. He throws with a lower arm angle as a lefty, which means relying more on off-speed pitches from that side.

Scouts also believe Cijntje’s future might be as a right-hander, which is why going against the percentages by pitching right-handed against lefties more often this season was notable.

“On the right side, I have more feel just because I used the right side very much more than the left side because at some point I stopped using the left side,” Cijntje said. “But I can feel the left side is becoming better.”

Cijntje was drafted in the 18th round by Milwaukee in 2022 out of high school in the Miami area but chose to attend Mississippi State.

After a rough freshman season in 2023, Cijntje was 8-2 with a 3.67 ERA this past season. He pointed to a 15-5 win over then-defending champion LSU as a launching pad for where he ended up as one of the six prospects awaiting their fate at a rodeo arena in the historic Fort Worth Stockyards.

“I think after that, I started getting good outing after good outing,” Cijntje said. “For me, that was like, ‘You’ve got to be on your A game,’ and don’t back down about nothing.”

Now, Cijntje doesn’t want to back down on pitching righty and lefty.