Last week in Seattle, I talked to pitching strategist and coach Trent Blank about the Mariners’ top pitching prospects, Jurrangelo Cijntje and Ryan Sloan. Both drafted in 2024, Cijntje is currently ranked 92nd and Sloan 96th on MLB Pipeline’s top 100 prospect list, and are opening eyes both in and out of the organization.

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Sloan has made six starts for the Single-A Modesto Nuts, and the Mariners are taking things very slow, allowing the 19-year-old right-hander to throw no more than 67 pitches in an appearance so far.

“He’s got real stuff,” Blank said. “He’s got a real life on his fastball. He’s got personal flexibility to where we feel like if we want to add something here and there, we can, but we don’t want to. We don’t want to cloud it, just doing the simple things right now.

“It’s kind of really thinking about what to do in the next 24 hours versus the next 24 months with him. And he’s done a great job of really managing that for how young he is. Heard nothing but good things about how he goes about his business, really competitive, wants to get better. But yeah, we’re taking that one slow, but also very excited about where he’s at right now.”

While bringing along an advanced 19 year old who has stuff but not innings has its challenges, that’s nothing compared to what they are facing in developing Cijntje, a switch-pitcher with the High-A Everett AquaSox. There simply is no roadmap.

“We’re kind of learning more about that process as we go,” Blank said. “We didn’t have the exact answer on how we wanted to develop both sides and then also use it from a strategy standpoint. Right now we’re putting a premium on the development side of things, and we’re taking different approaches than what we started with.

“The right side has been really good. The left side is is a work in progress. But we do see the flashes of the things that we really do want to see out of him and making sure we’re doing what’s best for him from a workload standpoint, from a development standpoint, and then putting a priority on the right side because we do know that’s really good.”

Cijntje is a different pitcher from each side, with the right side being his strongest. The plan out of spring training was to start him primarily as a righty but allow him to go through a lefty pocket in the opposing lineup as a lefty pitcher once per game. And on his bullpen day between starts, he would be allowed to pitch in a game as a lefty reliever. Cijntje has done that three times this season with Everett, but the Mariners appear to be revising that plan.

“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,” Blank said. “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.”

The slight shift is not a result of any kind of failure or challenge; rather, according to a number of people in the organization, the more they see him comes an even greater appreciation for what he brings from the right side.

“Love where he’s going,” Blank said. “Love the stuff that’s coming out of his hands. I think we knew how good the right side is, but it’s even better than than advertised. He’s just an awesome, awesome dude. Like slow heartbeat, very, very easy to talk to, and awesome to work with through this whole process.”

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