One day in 2019, Jorge Aguas picked up his phone and listened to the damnedest scouting report he’d ever heard. The voice on the other end of the line was Zackery Braafhart, a college baseball player at Florida National University. Braafhart had a cousin back home in Curacao who wanted to play high school baseball in Florida.
He hoped that Aguas, the head coach at Champagnat Catholic — a private school in Hialeah, Fla. — would consider taking a look. Advertisement Braafhart explained that his cousin was a shortstop.
He wasn’t very tall and was fairly skinny, but he’d played in the Little League World Series three years earlier and was a good student. “And,” Braafhart added, “he can also throw with both hands.” Aguas paused.
“Hmmmm,” the coach said, trying to stifle a smile. “Two hands. .
” The cousin’s name was Jurrangelo Cijntje, and nearly five years later, he remains the most captivating baseball player that Aguas has ever seen. He is a 5-foot-11 pitcher who can touch 99 mph with his right arm and then flip his custom Wilson glove to his other hand and throw a baseball 95 mph with his left. He spent the last two seasons at Mississippi State, where he unleashed his switch-pitching prowess on SEC opponents.
But he is much more than a novelty or party trick: He is also a possible first-round pick in the 2024 MLB Draft, a pitcher who might have major-league potential with both arms. “We have a joke inside the family,” says Braafhart, his elder co.
