While most of the baseball world is focused on the late-July MLB trade deadline, there is another event coming up soon. The San Francisco Giants hold the No. 13 overall pick in the 2024 MLB Draft, which will begin on July 14th.
The 2024 class is loaded with talent and will provide many teams the opportunity to select a future star in the first round.
CBS Sports recently unveiled a new mock draft, projecting picks for all 30 MLB teams. When it came to the Giants, they revealed a very intriguing selection.
With the No. 13 pick in the mock draft, San Francisco ended up with Jurrangelo Cijntje, a switch-pitching prospect out of Mississippi State.
“The Giants used their first-round picks on two-way players in 2022 (Reggie Crawford, now a full-time pitcher) and 2023 (Bryce Eldridge, now a full-time hitter), so why not go with a switch-pitcher this year? Cijntje (pronounced SAIN-ja) is not a novelty act. He’s upper-90s with a wipeout slider as a righty and low-90s with cutter/slider hybrid as a lefty. Cijntje has been great the last few weeks and there’s some thought he could really take off if he focuses on pitching right-handed full-time (he’s thrown righty more often to lefties as this season as gone on).”
Cijntje is coming off of an impressive 2024 season with Mississippi State.
He started 16 games, compiling an 8-2 record to go along with a 3.67 ERA and 113 strikeouts as opposed to just 30 walks. He only gave up a .211 batting average to opposing hitters.
While he may end up focusing on being a right-handed pitcher, as CBS Sports stated, the switch-pitching aspect of his game is interesting. If he sticks with that and can hone his craft, he could be the ultimate pitching weapon.
The Giants simply need to elevate the talent level at any position. MLB.com has San Francisco’s farm system ranked No. 17 across the entire league.
Adding talent, regardless of position, should be the priority.
All of that being said, the Giants need to get it right in the first round of the MLB Draft this year.
Cijntje is the current pick for CBS Sports and he would be entertaining to watch develop in the coming years.
