‘Bar Is High’ for Star Prospect As Detroit Tigers Consider Him for Rotation Spot
Coming down the final few weeks of the year, the Detroit Tigers all of a sudden have an opportunity to play postseason baseball if they can continue to keep winning and get help from the teams in front of them in the Wild Card race.
Entering Monday, they trail the final spot by just 3.5 games.
It won't be easy to accomplish by any means, especially with two series against the Baltimore Orioles and one against the Kansas City Royals, but both of those teams are ahead of them in the standings, which gives them a great chance to make up some ground.
If the Tigers are able to win two of those matchups, they could look up and find themselves holding onto the third spot in the American League at some point.
How they have gotten here is even more impressive than the fact they are in this situation.
After the trade deadline where they shipped away multiple veterans, Detroit turned things over to their young stars, rookies, and top prospects, trying to get them some Major League reps during the final months of the year.
That decision might have been just what the doctor ordered, though, as the Tigers are playing their best baseball of the season right now with their youngsters running the show.
One player they would love to be part of this roster is still not quite ready to be pitching in the MLB, but that doesn't mean he won't be a factor for them in 2025 and beyond.
It was reported that their No. 2 ranked prospect, Jackson Jobe, who is listed as the seventh-best minor leaguer in all of baseball, will be promoted to Triple-A to end this season.
Detroit isn't viewing this as a celebratory thing, though.
They are taking a hard look at how he performs when facing those level of hitters to see if he can be in their rotation as early as next year.
"The bar is high, especially with execution, and we want to challenge him to use all four pitchers — to use his cutter as a bridge pitch to his fastball and slider, and getting the ball more to his glove side. We want to make sure that we see some things worked on that might be small, but at the Triple-A level, get exposed really fast. It'll be a challenge for him to make some small adjustments," assistant general manager Ryan Garko said per Lynn Henning of The Detroit News.
If things go well, Jobe will likely be part of their rotation in 2025, joining their superstar ace Tarik Skubal and some other young arms who made their debuts this season.
To this point, there has been nothing to suggest he can't continue to produce.
In 56 career minor league starts, Jobe has an incredible ERA of 2.85 with 254 strikeouts in 224 innings pitched, holding opposing lineups to a .208 batting average.
His first Triple-A outing is expected to come this upcoming Saturday after doing some bullpen sessions to get him ready.
All eyes in the developmental wing will be on what Jobe does during his start as they eye adding another one of their star prospects to the mix going forward.
BRAD WAKAI