2024 MLB Draft: Mississippi State's Jurrangelo Cijntje and the history of baseball's switch-pitchers

2024 MLB Draft: Mississippi State's Jurrangelo Cijntje and the history of baseball's switch-pitchers

Major League Baseball's amateur draft continues to draw ever closer. Come July 14, the Cleveland Guardians will make the No. 1 selection for the first time in franchise history. Although it remains unclear who, precisely, the Guardians will take to kick off the draft, we feel confident ruling out Mississippi State pitcher Jurrangelo Cijntje (that's pronounced "SAIN-ja") from consideration.

Cijntje may not get to experience the joy of going No. 1 overall, but he's a fascinating prospect worth keeping tabs on. That's because he's a switch-pitcher, one capable of clearing 90 mph with both arms. To be fair, that description is increasingly nominal; Cijntje has mostly taken to throwing with his right arm this season, and it's possible that he abandons the switch aspect entirely as a pro. Mind you, we here at CBS Sports ranked him as the 14th best in the class, writing the following:

Cijntje (that's "SAIN-ja") is a switch-pitcher, and not in a gimmicky sense: he's capable of clearing 90 mph with both arms. He's also not a switch-pitcher in a committed sense, as he primarily throws with his right arm these days. That's a wise decision since he shows better velocity (into the upper 90s) and stuff (top-notch fastball and good breaking ball) from that direction. Cijntje is on the shorter side (listed at 5-foot-11) but he's a good athlete who averaged nearly six innings per pop this season. We think some team will pluck him earlier than anticipated with dreams of him becoming a right-handed middle-of-the-rotation starter.

Still, the possibility Cijntje might throw both ways at the next level is intriguing enough that we put together a brief history of professional switch-pitchers. Scroll slowly with us, won't you?

1. 19th century

You might think of switch-pitching as an old-time idea deployed during baseball's infancy, before the stakes and talent level soared to loftier heights. There's validity to that premise, at least in the sense that it was more commonplace, albeit barely. According to SABR's research, three pitchers prior to 1900 were known to be ambidextrous: Tony Mullane (the first in MLB history), Larry Corcoran, and "Ice Box" Chamberlain. Each had their careers end before the turn of the century. (It's possible George Wheeler also switch-pitched, though those accounts have been disputed.)

2. Jorge Rubio

Several other players claimed they could and/or had switch-pitched over the ensuing half-century. For brevity's sake, we're skipping to Rubio, who made 10 appearances over the 1966-67 seasons. Rubio told reporters in spring 1968 that he experimented with throwing lefty in winter ball. Notably, he said he didn't switch-pitch during games. "I always threw left-handed for a whole game. It takes some of the pressure off your arm." Rubio would never get to experiment in the majors, in part because he would never again appear in a big-league game. "He's going to win or lose a job with his right arm," manager Dave Bristol said at the time. Lose it was, we suppose.

3. Greg A. Harris

Rubio may have never gotten the chance to mix it up in a MLB game, but the same wasn't true of Harris. According to him, he first entertained switch-pitching in 1986. Harris didn't attempt it in a game until 1995, in what served as his second to last MLB appearance. He would face four batters overall, with righties bookending a pair of lefties. Harris would walk one of the lefties, but would otherwise generate three ground outs. His custom-made six-finger glove is in the Hall of Fame.

4. Pat Venditte

Whereas Harris' switch-pitching appearance served as an end-of-career gimmick, Venditte's switch-pitching helped him have a career in the first place. Kevin Goldstein, now a member of the Minnesota Twins front office, noted when Venditte was pitching at Creighton University that his stuff wasn't "pro good" from either side. That didn't prevent him from being selected in the 20th round by the Yankees, or from eventually making 61 MLB appearances. Venditte, who rounded out his career in 2020 with three scoreless appearances for the Marlins, finished with 4.73 ERA.

5. Others of note

While Harris and Venditte are the only players to switch-pitch at the MLB level since 1900, we feel obligated to mention a few others who did it as an amateur. Ryan Perez won the 2014 Cape Cod League All-Star Game MVP Award a summer before being drafted by the Cleveland Guardians. Brandon Berdoll, picked by the Braves in 2003, had his professional career dashed by injuries. (He's since become a sawmill owner.) Cijntje has already accomplished something at a high level that few others in the history of the sport have managed. Soon, we'll see if he can join an even more select group.