Detroit Tigers Top Prospect Dazzles Again with Elite Stuff In Spring Outing

The Detroit Tigers are starting to see what they want from a top prospect that made his MLB debut late last year.

Detroit Tigers pitcher Jackson Jobe throws a pitch during spring training at TigerTown in Lakeland, Fla. on Monday, Feb. 17, 2025. | Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Detroit Tigers took on the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday afternoon in another edition of Grapefruit League action, a matchup which ended in a 10-4 victory for the Tigers.

Among all the storylines of the day, the biggest was of course the second start of the spring for top prospect and hopeful starting rotation fixture in right-hander Jackson Jobe. After what was an up and down spring debut for the youngster last week, but still a demonstration of the kind of nasty stuff he provides, Sunday went a bit better.

Jobe went three innings and gave up two hits, including a solo home run, which accounted for his only earned run on the day. The 22-year-old gave up a total of just two hits with no walks and three strikeouts as well. Impressively, 21 of his 29 pitches went for strikes.

Touching 100 mph early, Jobe struck out two batters in the first inning:

Two Ks in the first 😮‍💨@jacksonwjobe pic.twitter.com/YjdoskzTPv

— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) March 2, 2025

Jackson Jobe, 3107 RPM Sweeper. 🌪️ pic.twitter.com/uwa6xng6tP

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) March 2, 2025

Jobe has now given up a total of just three hits in his five innings thus far in the spring, but two of which have gone for home runs, something which is not unusual for a young pitcher trying to figure out big league batters.

Overall, Jobe's stat line thus far has produced an unremarkable 5.40 ERA with four strikeouts, though his 0.800 is exactly where the team wants it to be.

With still several weeks left in the spring, Jobe has put himself in a position where Detroit will at the least have a difficult decision to make when it comes to what to do with the starting rotation to begin the year.

Unquestionably, the elite prospect is going to be a factor sooner rather than later. The readiness to start out the regular season is what Jobe was going to have to prove his way into. Clearly, he has the kind of stuff which is pretty rare when it comes to a young pitcher.

The team has no question whether he is going to pan out, it's simply a matter of when. Seen as a lock for the rotation just a couple of months ago after debuting late in the 2024 season, the Tigers wound up bringing back Jack Flaherty and made the staff much less thin than it initially appeared.

Couple that with strong starts to the spring for both Kenta Maeda and Casey Mize and there's only so many spots to go around.

Regardless of what the outcome is, Jobe certainly helped himself out on Sunday and demonstrated to team brass why he should be on the big league roster out of the gate in 2025.