Mariners switch-pitcher Cijntje wins minor league award

Seattle Mariners switch-pitching prospect Jurrangelo Cijntje was named the Northwest League’s pitcher of the week after taking a no-hitter into the sixth inning of his latest outing.

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Cijntje spun six scoreless innings of one-hit ball in High-A Everett’s 1-0 seven-inning win over Vancouver in the opener of a doubleheader on Sunday. The 2024 first-round pick struck out five, while issuing two walks and hitting a pair of batters.

As a right-hander, Cijntje retired 17 of the 19 batters he faced. As a lefty, allowed all three batters to reach base on a pair of walks and a hit by pitch.

Cijntje’s no-hit bid ended with a one-out single in the sixth, but he induced an inning-ending double play on the very next pitch to complete the best outing of his young pro career.

For the season, the 21-year-old Cijntje has a 4.32 ERA in 33 1/3 innings, but most of the runs he’s allowed have come while pitching for the left side. As a right-hander, he has limited opponents to a .146 batting average in 96 at-bats, with 30 strikeouts and eight walk. As a lefty, he’s allowed six hits in 19 at-bats, while totaling five strikeouts and 13 walks.

Cijntje is a stronger pitcher from the right side, where he has higher velocity and better stuff. The initial plan out of spring training was to primarily have him pitch from the right side in his starts and also make a lefty relief appearance in between starts. But since the start of May, all three of his outings have been starts.

As Mariners insider Shannon Drayer reported in an article published Monday, the club may be revising the original plan.

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“We’re in the process of talking about (how) we wanted to have the reliever day be an opportunity for him to focus on just the left side and develop it and get more reps,” Mariners pitching strategist and coach Trent Blank told Drayer last week. “I think what we want to do moving forward is kind of shift more to just the starter version of this and learn how to blend the left hand into those outings, and then also give him a true bullpen in the middle to work on things and develop.

“We had one where we wanted to speed up the development side through the game, now we’re going to shift it back to give him a break from the left side from a workload standpoint and then also give him some just true development reps in the bullpen.”

Cijntje is ranked by Baseball America as the sport’s No. 91 overall prospect and by MLB Pipeline as the No. 92 overall prospect.

Cijntje is the seventh different player in the Mariners’ system – and the eighth player overall – to receive a minor league player of the week award this year.

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