Mariners' most fascinating prospect is also their most expendable trade chip

It's a seller's market for starting pitchers this winter. Shane Baz, who has a career 4.25 ERA over 286 innings in four big league seasons, recently netted four prospects from the Orioles in exchange for his services. Along with several other smaller trades and big free agent contracts, options for teams to bolster their rotations are quickly being trimmed down.

This is great news for the Seattle Mariners, who have some of the best starting pitching talent around. All of their five big league starters could be an impact arm for nearly any rotation and, despite the front office's explicit intention to keep all of them around, other teams continue to test the possibility of acquiring the likes of a Bryce Miller or Luis Castillo.

But the interest in Seattle's pitching assets doesn't stop at the big-league level. Three of their minor-league pitchers rank in MLB Pipeline's Top 100: Kade Anderson (No. 23), Ryan Sloan (No. 44), and Jurrangelo Cijntje (No. 90). Anderson's ranking is purely speculative as he is yet to throw a single professional inning and Ryan Sloan was recently described as being too valuable to trade. But what about the third option?

Of their top pitching prospects, the Mariners are reportedly most open to trading Jurrangelo Cijntje

In a recent article by Adam Jude for The Seattle Times, he reported that the Mariners "have expressed a willingness to consider trading Cijntje." Of the big three, he is the oldest and based on his prospect rank, has the least upside. That might seem peculiar given his unique switch-pitching skillset, but after his first professional season, it remains to be seen whether it's an effective weapon in his arsenal or just a gimmick.

He started the year with High-A Everett and had underwhelming results, posting a 4.58 ERA and a 5.51 FIP. He began to hone things in during the second half of the season and over his seven starts with Double-A Arkansas, he pitched to a far more impressive 2.67 ERA and 3.42 FIP. Unfortunately, a closer look at his numbers indicate that he may only be effective in one type of matchup. Here are his splits from his 2025 season.

Across the board, he was significantly better when throwing right-handed. Even when he had the platoon advantage of facing a hitter of the same handedness. He also made fewer than 70 plate appearances as a southpaw, so it seems that the Mariners are trying to move away from a side that is far less developed than the other.

Although he's flawed, he's still a great right-handed prospect, and if a team wants to continue spending time making his left-handed pitching more viable, they're more than welcome to. The Cardinals have already inquired about him in a potential trade for Brendan Donovan and for the Mariners, giving him up might not be the end of the world. Since they already have enough starting pitching depth to last them quite a while, it makes more sense to leverage their riches to bolster other areas of weakness.

Drafting Cijntje was always going to be a dice toss. He's far from a bust but he may be worth more to the organization as a trade piece than as a future big league starter. It remains to be seen whether the front office is as adamant about retaining their minor league starters as they are about their major league ones but if anyone were to be packaged away, it'll be him.