ScotchMIrish wrote: ↑06 Feb 2026 08:18 am
He may turn out to be an ace but it seems to me if he has great stuff he wouldn't have switch to throwing left handed against left handed batters.
Maybe Bloom thinks he will be an attraction to draw fans?
You after the trade:
"Somebody at redbird rants got a free seat in the press box or a luxury suite. The ambidextrous pitcher is curious. When has that ever worked? If you have good stuff it doesn't matter whether you are righthanded or lefthanded. The fact that he doesn't trust his righthanded stuff vs lefthanded batters..."
The kid is a natural LH who began throwing RH at a VERY young age because he liked to use his dad's glove, who was RH.
You're consistently coming at this trade with a useless combination of skepticism and ignorance.
According to what I found asking some Mariners fans was that he started the year throwing exclusively LH to LHP, but towards the end of the year is when he started throwing RH to LHH. Not sure if it was exclusively or some mix of only throwing LH to LHH with extreme splits. It did sound like when he threw RH against LHH it was more of a problem with not having a plan on getting hitters out from that side rather than lack of talent. And apparently that is what Seattle, and I’m assuming the Cardinals will continue to work on.
And it does sound like while he was with the Mariners he still continued to throw LH in non game situations to see if he could develop enough from that side to throw to LHH with extreme splits. And judging by Bloom’s own words in the video that was helpfully provided. It sounds like the Cardinals will go forward with that. Bloom wouldn’t commit fully, saying that the Cardinals staff first need to speak first with Cijntje and talk with him about it, but from an outside perspective he thought that would be the direction they would go.
NYCardsFan wrote: ↑06 Feb 2026 09:27 amDon’t know if it answers your particular question, but there was a discussion of his splits here: viewtopic.php?t=1520135
Nice, I didn’t see that thread.
But yea, my assumption is that he is viewed primarily as a RHP that will normally throw RH against LHH, but occasionally switch to LHP if facing a LHH with drastic splits. And quite honestly, I hope they don’t totally give up on letting him at least continue to throw LH outside of actual games. If he can develop into a guy who can serviceably throw LH when needed, especially if he just ends up a bullpen guy, that would really be helpful for his career. I get that that would be worst case scenario for him, but never hurts to plan for the future.
My comments are not intended to demean the player - he sounds more like a circus act or something the old white Sox would have entertained years ago. At any rate, I’d pay to see a couple of innings if he switch pitched- just for the pure entertainment value.
ScotchMIrish wrote: ↑06 Feb 2026 08:18 am
He may turn out to be an ace but it seems to me if he has great stuff he wouldn't have switch to throwing left handed against left handed batters.
Maybe Bloom thinks he will be an attraction to draw fans?
It has already been reported that Cijntje is now pitching almost exclusively as a RH.
Why waste an opportunity like this? It might be like the Dodgers telling Shohei he cant hit.
ScotchMIrish wrote: ↑06 Feb 2026 08:18 am
He may turn out to be an ace but it seems to me if he has great stuff he wouldn't have switch to throwing left handed against left handed batters.
Maybe Bloom thinks he will be an attraction to draw fans?
I think he's supposed to just pitch right-handed. He looks more serviceable like that anyway. Apparently he throws pretty hard, maybe he'll be okay. I'd worry more about his control than anything else. If you fall behind and have to come in to the batter it won't end well. Seems like the harder a pitcher throws the less control they seem to have.
ScotchMIrish wrote: ↑06 Feb 2026 08:18 am
He may turn out to be an ace but it seems to me if he has great stuff he wouldn't have switch to throwing left handed against left handed batters.
Maybe Bloom thinks he will be an attraction to draw fans?
Yeah, no reason for players to be switch hitters either! /s
As pointed out already, he's naturally left handed, and as I allude to above let's completely ignore platoon splits, which have been in the game since the late 1800s and in common use since the early 20th century.
mattmitchl44 wrote: ↑06 Feb 2026 08:39 am
I imagine the only reason he's been allowed to stick with throwing LH as long as he has is because he is apparently naturally LH.
However, I expect that sooner rather than later he's going to need to work on throwing RH to LH batters and learning how to get outs that way.
That was the headline player we got for an all star, gold glove and top 5 OPS at 2B in MLB.
Yes, Cejntje was the headline player as his fine college pitching at Miss. St. had scouts rating him quite highly , in fact a 1st round caliber player who was selected 15th. He currently was ranked a Top 100 prospect by MLB (ranking 91st ) . Baseball America called his fastball tool the tops of any minor leaguer in Mariners farm system.
As for Donovan , though his .775 OPS was top 5 for 2B , the .775 OPS was 60th best among all position players in 2025. His OBP was 32nd .
The best stat was his batting average of .287 ranking 18th ..very good ! Donovan's OPS among Cardinals was 3rd best behind Burly (.802) and Contreras ( .791 ) .
ScotchMIrish wrote: ↑06 Feb 2026 08:18 am
He may turn out to be an ace but it seems to me if he has great stuff he wouldn't have switch to throwing left handed against left handed batters.
Maybe Bloom thinks he will be an attraction to draw fans?
It has already been reported that Cijntje is now pitching almost exclusively as a RH.
Throwing left handed vs LHB his batters had an OPS of 1.114. That's why he switches to throwing right handed which was still very poor but not quite as bad at .845 OPS.
Expect to see opposing managers load the lineup with left handed batters. I wonder if Bloom saw that stat before he made the deal.
mattmitchl44 wrote: ↑06 Feb 2026 08:39 am
I imagine the only reason he's been allowed to stick with throwing LH as long as he has is because he is apparently naturally LH.
However, I expect that sooner rather than later he's going to need to work on throwing RH to LH batters and learning how to get outs that way.
Apparently he already does that. I was watching a highlight video posted the other day and it showed him throwing RH to multiple LHH. There is also a highlight where he throws RH to a RHH and then next batter is LH and he switches to LHP. I asked if he has been throwing LH to LHH's with more drastic splits and otherwise throwing RH. No one responded, so maybe I'll ask this to some Mariners fans and see what they have to say.
He had an .845 OPS throwing right handed vs LHP which is an improvement over his 1.114 OPS throwing left handed. Teams will stack the lineup with left handed batters. If the doesn't get that corrected he will be a relief pitcher.
Throwing left handed vs LHB his batters had an OPS of 1.114. That's why he switches to throwing right handed which was still very poor but not quite as bad at .845 OPS.
Expect to see opposing managers load the lineup with left handed batters. I wonder if Bloom saw that stat before he made the deal.
Yea, probably not. Bloom and the development group that this team spends millions on probably didn’t do any research like looking up a guy’s splits on Baseball Reference.
mattmitchl44 wrote: ↑06 Feb 2026 08:39 am
I imagine the only reason he's been allowed to stick with throwing LH as long as he has is because he is apparently naturally LH.
However, I expect that sooner rather than later he's going to need to work on throwing RH to LH batters and learning how to get outs that way.
Apparently he already does that. I was watching a highlight video posted the other day and it showed him throwing RH to multiple LHH. There is also a highlight where he throws RH to a RHH and then next batter is LH and he switches to LHP. I asked if he has been throwing LH to LHH's with more drastic splits and otherwise throwing RH. No one responded, so maybe I'll ask this to some Mariners fans and see what they have to say.
He’s horrible LH. Can’t throw strikes either.
As a lefty in his first professional season, Cijntje has allowed a 1.354 OPS in 30 plate appearances against lefty batters and a 1.200 OPS in 14 plate appearances against righties. His most successful matchup has been as a righty against righties, who are slashing just .150/.226/.239 against him in 124 plate appearances.
ScotchMIrish wrote: ↑06 Feb 2026 13:17 pmHe had an .845 OPS throwing right handed vs LHP which is an improvement over his 1.114 OPS throwing left handed. Teams will stack the lineup with left handed batters. If the doesn't get that corrected he will be a relief pitcher.
Yea, I hope they make decisions based on 156 and 47 plate appearances from his first year as a pro.
While they’re doing that, maybe they’ll look at the 241 plate appearances when he threw RH against RHB and held them to a .480 OPS. If he’s that good against 70%-75% of the hitters he is going to face, then I’m sure he can see the potential for a pitcher to do even close to that good against LHH.
