Detroit Tigers Star Prospect Won't Make Major League Debut This Season
The Detroit Tigers are going to have an interesting finish to the year.
Not because they are in the mix to make the playoffs, but because this should give fans a window into how this roster might look next season and into the future.
Holding onto Tarik Skubal means the Tigers could have their first Cy Young winner since Max Scherzer took home the award in 2013.
But outside of their superstar pitcher, there are some other pieces who are going to be auditioning to be part of this team moving forward. Speculation is the front office is going to be aggressive this winter, so many of their youngsters will get an opportunity to prove what they can do.
Coming into the year, Detroit had the fifth-ranked farm system per MLB Pipeline.
Colt Keith is the only one of their Top 100 prospects who has made his debut as Max Clark isn't expected until 2026, Jace Jung hasn't been called up even though he's played 80 games at Triple-A, and Jackson Jobe is still a couple levels removed from the Majors.
Still, it's not uncommon for teams to fast-track their star prospects at the end of the season to get an evaluation on them.
However, that won't happen for their top pitching prospect Jobe.
"Jackson is gonna go to Triple-A before he goes to Detroit. We have seen a lot of examples in pitchers around the league and in this organization who dominated Double-A and then faced some adversity in Triple-A ... We kind of owe Jackson the opportunity to face those struggles, if they exist at all, test his stuff and command and pitchability against Triple-A hitters before he gets to Detroit," president of baseball operations Scott Harris told Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic.
That seemingly nips the notion he'll debut this year in the bud.
Not only was this brought up because he's a star prospect who seems like he could be part of the future alongside Skubal, but also because the Tigers have a clear need for starting pitching during the final two months of the season.
Jobe is the No. 2 ranked prospect in their pipeline, and during his 50 minor league starts, he's compiled a 2.99 ERA to go with 226 strikeouts and a 1.12 WHIP across his 192.2 total innings.
He looks like the real deal, so it's hard to blame Detroit fans for wanting to see him in action.
However, it sounds like the organization is going to wait at least until next year before considering a call up for him to make his Major League debut.
BRAD WAKAI