Seattle Mariners Post Heartwarming Viral Video For Top Draft Pick
The Seattle Mariners have had one of the best farm systems in baseball for the better part of the season.
The Mariners continued to add to that highly-touted farm system with a solid 2024 draft that included switch-pitcher Jurrangelo Cijntje.
Cijntje was drafted with the 15th pick of the first round of this year's draft out of Mississippi State.
Cijntje was one of the most intriguing prospects in this year's draft due to his switch-pitching ability. But his journey to getting drafted was more intriguing than his ambidextrous throwing.
Cijntje was born in the Netherlands but mainly grew up in Curaçao. While living in Curaçao — Cijntje competed on the country's 2016 Little League World Series team before moving to Miami at 16 years-old.
Cijntje was actually drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in the 18th round of the 2022 MLB Draft but opted to attend college instead.
Cijntje's father and grandfather both played baseball and helped inspire the youngest of the Cijntje family to pursue a career in baseball.
Based on his story — a lot of people supported Cijntje on his journey to Major League Baseball. And during Cijntje's visit to Seattle and T-Mobile Park on July 23, the organization gave their latest pitching prospect a gift in the form of supportive messages from friends and family.
The Mariners posted a video showing Cijntje receiving those messages on their player development "X" account on Tuesday.
When first-round pick @_LooCijntje arrived in Seattle to officially become a Mariner, we surprised him with special messages from his friends & family who’ve supported him on his journey 🥹 pic.twitter.com/pE9svzlF7n
— Mariners Player Development (@MsPlayerDev) September 3, 2024
Seattle showed the messages on center field screen and among those of Cijntje's loved ones congratulating him were his coach and mentor "Coach Tito", his uncle, his aunt, his cousins, Chris Lemonis (Mississippi State head coach), Boston Red Sox reliever Kenley Jansen (another pitcher from Curaçao), another former coach, his childhood friends, his girlfriend's family, his high school and pitching coaches and more.
Cijntje won't see the mound until the 2025 season but its encouraging that he has so many people behind him on his journey.
That kind of motivation might help Cijntje continue to become the pitcher that the Mariners expected when drafting him.
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