Baseball fans have heard about switch hitters, but what about a switch pitcher?
The Seattle Mariners selected ambidextrous pitcher Jurrangelo Cijntje with the 15th pick in the first round of the MLB draft on Sunday, making league history in the process.
Cijntje is the first switch pitcher taken in the first round of the MLB draft.
Born in the Netherlands, Cijntje, 21, grew up throwing the ball as a natural lefty, but the motivation to be like his father Mechangelo, a professional catcher in the Netherlands, drove him to learn how to throw from the right side as well.
"I always wanted to throw from the right side, especially like mocking my dad,” Cijntje said. "So that's why I wanted to throw from the right side."
"I always [would] forget my glove at home on purpose so I could use his ... so I could throw from the right side. And one time, he just grabbed a ball, put a screw in the ball and let me throw the ball at a tire and that helped me from the right side."
Cjintje possesses a plus-fastball from the right side and an above-average, sweeping slider from the left side. He can hit the upper 90s with his right-armed fastball and the mid-90s with his lefty heater.
The Mariners seem content to let Cjintje spread his ambidextrous wings in MLB.
"We're going to let Jurrangelo make that decision to start,” Mariners director of amateur scouting Scott Hunter told MLB.com. “That's the fun part of it. ... There is a huge advantage if he does do both. I don't think it will be a true left today, right tomorrow. It's more about maybe picking matchups and seeing how it works in the Minor Leagues. But it is definitely an option that's on the table to keep it going.”
Cjintje himself said he would like to continue to throw with both arms should Seattle let him.
Cjintje, who went 8-2 with a 3.67 ERA and 113 strikeouts in 90 2/3 innings for Mississippi State in 2023, could become just the second switch pitcher to debut in MLB in the modern era, joining former Oakland Athletics pitcher Pat Venditte, who debuted in June of 2015.
Per MLB rules, "A pitcher must visually indicate with which hand he will use to pitch prior to the start of a plate appearance."
The pitcher can do so by wearing the glove on his non-pitching hand and stepping onto the rubber. Unless an injury occurs, the pitcher is not allowed to pitch with his other hand until the batter is retired, reaches base or is replaced by a pinch-hitter.
If an injury occurs to the pitcher's pitching hand, he is allowed to pitch with the other hand mid-plate appearance, but is then barred from pitching with the injured hand for the rest of the game.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Mariners Make Cool MLB History By Drafting Switch Pitcher Jurrangelo Cijntje.
