Jurrangelo Cijntje and Ryan Sloan make their Mariners debuts in a night full of prospects
For fans of the Mariners minors, even MiLB.TV falls short at times in offering glimpses at players like 2024 draftees Jurrangelo Cijntje and Ryan Sloan, as well as players at the Rookie ball levels, like Jeter Martinez and Felnin Celesten. The Spring Breakout series, then, is a gift for those prospect-heads eager to see players you might not otherwise get a chance to see, as well as more familiar faces like Lazaro Montes and Colt Emerson who star on MiLB TV nightly.
Star power was in no short supply, even as the Mariners fell to the Guardians prospects, 8-7. The most anticipated matchup of the night was in dueling first-round selections, including first overall selection Travis Bazzana for the Guardians facing off against Mariners first-rounder Jurrangelo Cijntje. The switch-pitcher faced the lefty Bazzana twice, getting him out from each side: first as a lefty, as Bazzana grounded out on the first pitch he saw; and then as a righty.
“So much adrenaline, I can’t even control my body,” said Cijntje postgame, saying he and Bazzana first met at a Panini event signing cards and talked about how they were likely to face each other. “I love the adrenaline,” he said, noting the thrill of putting on the Mariners uniform to face off against Cleveland’s best prospects under the bright lights.
Tai Peete had a front row seat to Cijntje’s show, and his only response was a non-verbal one: pursing his lips and squinting his eyes as if to say, sheeesh. “I mean, seriously, that’s six from the left side, eight from the right side, like whaaaaaaaaat.”
“When he switched [gloves] on the mound, everyone started cheering…It’s like the movie, The Perfect Game, seeing him switch gloves. . The way he walks on and off the mound, his presence on the mound, it shows that he knows what he’s doing. He loves that spotlight, but I like it a lot too.”
Between Jurrangelo, Peete, bigger-than-life Lazaro, and all the other Mariners prospects filling up top-100 lists, is this just a dugout full of stars?
“No,” says Peete. “It’s all one big light.”
“The guys we have are just unreal. You know, some of the guys that don’t get as much spotlight, you have no idea of how good of a player they are. It shows on the field how good they are.”
Some of those under-the-radar players came up big in tonight’s game, like Jared Sundstrom demolishing a ball for a two-run home run that was hit so hard and so far there was no Statcast information on it. Luis Suisbel also continued what’s been a spring of solid hitting, with a well-stroked double that just missed getting out.
But some of the most undersung stars were in the stands, waiting out an unseasonably cold game in Arizona where the gametime temperature was, per the video board, almost ten degrees colder than in Cleveland, OH. That included pitcher Dylan Wilson, Jurrangelo’s roommate and friend, there to cheer his “brother” on, and Lazaro Montes’s family, who cheered for every player despite being bundled up against the cold.
Lazaro Montes’s family sat through the whole game, wrapped in heavy blankets to protect against the cold, even after Laz was out of the game, to support all the Mariners prospects, especially the Latin ones. Could hear Papa Montes cheering all the way in the press box.
— Lookout Landing (@lookoutlanding.bsky.social) 2025-03-15T03:46:47.509Z
One of the players the Montes clan was cheering for was Jeter Martinez, who also made his televised debut, ending with an exclamation point as he got Bazzana, who played the entire game, swinging after a 98.5 mph four-seamer with some heavy sinking action. Martinez looked much more polished than he did in spring training games a year ago, the last time most of us were able to see him in action.
Perhaps the most exciting debut of the night was 2024 second-rounder Ryan Sloan, who opened with a devastating three-pitch strikeout of Ralphy Velazquez (sequence: 95 up for a foul, 96.7 at the bottom of the zone for a swinging strike, and an 84.8 mph slider for the swinging strike three). It wasn’t all smooth going for Sloan, making his first appearance facing anyone other than fellow Mariners prospects on backfields around the valley, but the stuff was as advertised, coming out of a frame that looks even bigger and stronger than his high school days.
But the thing that stands out the most is that these young Mariners aren’t a collection of individual talents; they are a family that supports each other, lifts each other up when mistakes are made, celebrates each others’ accomplishments, and makes sure everyone else’s star is polished up for all to see. The spotlight might be on individual players and top-100 lists tonight, but the constellation of the Mariners’ farm system will shine all year long.