Tigers’ Jackson Jobe Gained Wisdom Through Struggles

When Jackson Jobe took the mound for his debut with High-A West Michigan about a month after his 20th birthday, he was already carrying an understanding of the importance of his maturation process.

“Going into West Michigan was a complete culture shock,” Jobe said. “I’d heard so many things about it, so I knew it was going to be awesome. I had never played in front of—even close—to that many people before.”

Prior to his arrival with the Whitecaps, Jobe used his time with Low-A Lakeland to combine polish and ingenuity to his existing arsenal. That process wasn’t always easy. 

“I’d say the first month and a half, I really struggled,” Jobe said. “I was able to look at myself in the mirror and say, ‘All right, we need to figure out what’s going on here.’ ”

In 18 starts with Lakeland, Jobe posted a 4.52 ERA with 71 strikeouts and 25 walks in 61.2 innings. Opponents hit .251.

Jobe took full advantage of the Tigers’ pitching technology to pinpoint where he needed the most improvement.

“I had to make some pretty big adjustments on my four-seam fastball,” Jobe said. “It’s what you’d call a flat four-seam fastball, which really means that it didn’t have very much movement and wasn’t getting sufficient spin.”

Jobe, the third overall pick in 2021 out of high school in Oklahoma City, tried a sinker but to no avail. He set about trying to add movement to his four-seamer.

“I didn’t really start seeing progress with that until, probably, my second month,” he said.

Jobe has also added a cutter to his arsenal, which includes a four-seamer, changeup and slider that he manipulates into a curveball at times. 

“I wanted a breaking ball that I could land in the zone a little easier,” Jobe said. “My slider has a lot of movement, and it’s a little slower, so at times it’s hard to land in the zone when I want to. Now, I have that cutter that has a little bit tighter movement and should be easier to land in-zone.”