Cardinals Address Switch-Pitcher Jurrangelo Cijntje's Role in St. Louis

The St. Louis Cardinals landed one of the most unique prospects in baseball on Monday.

You've heard of a two-way player before. How about a switch-pitcher? There aren't too many guys out there who can pitch at a professional level both right-handed and left-handed. But the Cardinals have one now in Jurrangelo Cijntje. The 2024 first-round pick logged a 3.99 ERA in his first professional season in 2025 and made it up to Double-A in the Seattle Mariners' system.

If you like our content, choose Sports Illustrated as a preferred source on Google.

Now, he's coming to St. Louis. But will he continue to pitch in games with both arms? Reports surfaced this offseason that the Mariners were planning to have him focus on pitching right-handed moving forward. So, unsurprisingly, Cardinals president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom was asked whether St. Louis feels the same on Tuesday.

The Cardinals have an intriguing prospect on their hands

Jul 14, 2024; Ft. Worth, TX, USA; MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred takes a photo with Jurrangelo Cijntje after being drafted by the Seattle Mariners with the 15th pick during the first round of the MLB Draft at Cowtown Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images | Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

"Broadly speaking, we see his strengths and his upside similarly to Seattle," Bloom said. "This is something that actually came up over the course of the conversations, not just over weeks, but months even talking to Seattle about how they saw him. He's such a unique player. I don't want to get too specific just because we owe it to ourselves and to him to get to know him a little bit first. But when you look at stuff, the command, the upside, it's not a shock that they were prioritizing the right side. They still, and Jurrangelo, I know, is passionate about keeping up the left side I think for any number of reasons, including the fact that he's gotten to this point with a routine that is specific to him that you don't want to disrupt too much without good reason.

"They still had planned to keep the left side going, at least in a practice setting in the bullpen. That makes sense to be from a distance but I don't want to get too specific because I think we need to have this guy with us and learn from him. We have a little bit of a running start ... first and foremost, we'll get to know him, understand him, see what's on his mind, make sure he's using his own voice in his development because he is unique. He knows himself best. But broadly speaking, we do think the course that they were going to take is a good one."

So, it sounds like the focus will be Cijntje's right hand, but they're not ruling anything out yet.

More MLB: Chaim Bloom Reveals Cardinals’ Strategy Behind Brendan Donovan Trade