Cijntje becomes Mississippi State’s latest first-round draft pick, goes 15th to Mariners (2024)

At this time last year, Jurrangelo Cijntje was coming off a disappointing freshman season at Mississippi State in which he posted an 8.10 ERA and allowed 34 walks and 12 home runs in just 50 innings.

Sunday night, the ambidextrous pitcher heard his name called in the first round of the MLB Draft as the No. 15 overall pick by the Seattle Mariners.

The selection capped a remarkable turnaround for Cijntje, who lowered his ERA to 3.67 this past spring and won eight of his 10 decisions. In 90 2/3 innings, Cijntje issued just 30 walks and surrendered only 11 homers, holding opponents to a .211 batting average.

Born in the Netherlands, Cijntje grew up in Curaçao and gained plenty of media attention while pitching with both hands in the 2016 Little League World Series. He moved to Florida at age 16 and played two years of high school baseball in Miami, then was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers as a shortstop but instead chose the college route. Now, he is the Bulldogs’ 20th first-round draft pick and the first since Landon Sims in 2022.

MSU right-hander Khal Stephen, who had a spectacular junior year with the Bulldogs after transferring from Purdue, was taken in the second round with the 59th overall pick by the Toronto Blue Jays. Stephen was a reliever as a freshman with the Boilermakers and had a 5.21 ERA as a starter in 2023, but he thrived in his new home and in the Southeastern Conference, with an 8-3 record and a 3.28 ERA in 96 innings pitched.

Stephen struck out more than five batters for every man he walked, and opponents hit just .213 against him. He was a true workhorse, throwing more innings than any SEC pitcher whose team did not reach the national championship series. During one stretch against Florida, Georgia, Ole Miss and Auburn, Stephen went 24 2/3 consecutive innings without allowing an earned run.

The third member of the Bulldogs’ opening weekend rotation, right-hander Nate Dohm, was taken in the third round (82nd overall) on Monday by the New York Mets. Dohm pitched at Ball State as a freshman before transferring to MSU, where he became the Opening Day starter as a junior and allowed just four earned runs in 24 innings before sustaining an arm injury in early March. He was returned late in the year with four scoreless innings out of the bullpen in May.

Some draft analysts had Bulldogs outfielder Dakota Jordan off the board in the first round, but Jordan had to wait until the fourth round to hear his name called. The San Francisco Giants took Jordan with the 116th overall pick following a season in which the sophom*ore batted .354 and slugged .671 with 20 home runs and 72 runs batted in.

Jordan will need to cut down on the strikeouts as he moves to the professional ranks — he struck out in 35 percent of his at-bats in 2024 — but the raw power, hit tool and throwing arm are certainly well developed already.

Late in the sixth round, the Los Angeles Dodgers selected MSU pitcher Brooks Auger, who had an excellent bounce-back season after missing all of 2023 while recovering from Tommy John Surgery. Auger began the season as one of the Bulldogs’ high-leverage relief arms but joined the starting rotation down the stretch and pitched the game of his life against Ole Miss in the SEC Tournament, striking out 13 Rebels in eight innings of three-hit, one-run ball.

Nori taken 27th by Phillies

The Bulldogs knew it would be a long shot to get Michigan high school outfielder Dante Nori to campus, and those odds became even longer after the MSU signee was drafted in the first round, 27th overall, by the Philadelphia Phillies. With a slot value of $3.23 million, Nori is widely expected to sign with the Phillies and begin his professional career.

Nori led Northville High School to its first state championship in the school’s 115-year history as a senior, slashing .477/.575/.748 with 23 extra-base hits and 20 stolen bases in 39 games.

In the eighth round, the Boston Red Sox took Bulldogs signee Conrad Cason, a two-way player from Greater Atlanta Christian School in Norcross, Georgia. The pick comes with a slot value of $219,900, but considering Cason was very nearly a top-100 prospect according to MLB Pipeline, he could end up signing for a good deal more than that. Cason’s fastball tops out at 97-98 miles per hour and sits comfortably in the 93-95 mph range.