Detroit Tigers Top Prospect Primed for Breakout Season With New Pitches

Will the top prospect for the Detroit Tigers have a breakout season?

Detroit Tigers pitcher Jackson Jobe throws at batting practice during spring training at Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland, Fla. on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. | Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Detroit Tigers are getting prepared for the start of the season and their pitching staff appears to be something they will be leaning on. 

With spring training coming to a close soon, the Tigers are getting set for an upcoming year with big expectations. 

After snapping a lengthy postseason drought in 2024, Detroit will now be looking to build upon that success. 

This winter, the team focused on improving a starting rotation that lacked high-end talent and depth after Tarik Skubal. The franchise did an excellent job with that by signing Jack Flaherty and Alex Cobb. 

The reunion with Flaherty was a great move by the team. The right-hander will give them the number two pitcher in the rotation that they need in a postseason series behind Skubal. 

However, while the veteran right-hander will be a big boost to the rotation, the Tigers also have a lot of young arms that they have high expectations of. 

Kiley McDaniel of ESPN.com recently spoke about the talented Jackson Jobe as the player who would have a breakout season for the Tigers in 2025. 

“Jobe is reportedly adding a sinker and curveball to his already plus mix of pitches, giving him plenty of weapons to help him break out at the big league level once his command is ready, possibly after a handful of starts in Triple-A.”

The talented young right-hander is one of the best prospects in baseball and Detroit did call him up right at the end of the season. 

Seeing a little bit of action in the postseason will be important for his development going forward, and Detroit using him in a playoff game shows the amount of confidence that they have in him. 

In the minors last year, the 22-year-old totaled a 5-3 record and 2.36 ERA in 91.2 innings pitched. 

Even though Jobe’s skill set likely has him ready to make the Opening Day roster, not reaching the 100 innings mark in 2024 is something that will likely be something to monitor. 

Detroit certainly won’t want to increase his innings pitched too much in 2025, which makes starting the year in the minors to space out starts potentially a good idea. 

Fortunately, the Tigers have the depth in their rotation as of now that they can start Jobe in the minors and buy some time and innings this year. 

However, the top prospect certainly appears to be ready to be pitching in the big leagues and if there wasn’t a question about his potential workload, he would be a safe bet to make the roster to begin the campaign. 

While it might not be from the jump, expect an exciting season from the talented right-hander, especially with some new pitches in his arsenal.