Jurrangelo Cijntje closed his 2026 regular season with 5 1/3 scoreless innings Wednesday, pitching Triple-A Memphis to an 11-1 win over Nashville at First Horizon Park and adding another steady outing to his September ledger.
The result
The Cardinals’ No. 12 prospect worked exclusively right-handed again, continuing a recent stretch in which the switch-pitcher has stayed on that side of the rubber. Cijntje has not thrown left-handed in a game since Aug. 6.
Nashville put two runners aboard with two outs in the opening inning, but Cijntje got out of the early threat. From there, he retired 10 straight hitters before issuing a one-out walk in the sixth. It was only his second walk of the afternoon and brought an end to his outing.
Cijntje threw 78 pitches, 48 for strikes, while striking out three. His four-seam fastball reached 97.6 mph and averaged 95.8 mph. He produced nine misses on 34 swings, a 26 percent whiff rate, with five of those swings and misses coming against his 55-grade slider.
The three strikeouts brought his combined total across two Minor League levels to 162, tied for second among all Minor Leaguers entering Thursday. The 23-year-old finished the regular season with a 4.87 ERA overall and a 4.61 mark in 11 Triple-A starts.
That Triple-A ERA carries the weight of three rough starts in which he allowed at least five runs. In six of his Memphis outings, however, Cijntje surrendered two or fewer earned runs.
September offered a clearer picture of the progress. In three starts this month, the 2024 first-round pick recorded a 1.13 ERA over 16 innings with 13 strikeouts. The Cardinals acquired Cijntje from Seattle during the offseason trade that sent Brendan Donovan to the Mariners.
The rotation next
Memphis’ regular season ends Sunday, but Cijntje may not be finished. The Redbirds have already secured a place in the International League Championship Series after posting the league’s best first-half record.
Memphis does not yet know its opponent, though Game 1 is scheduled for Tuesday. Cijntje is likely to take the ball next in that postseason series, carrying a sharp final regular-season start into October.
