LAKELAND, Fla. -- The Tigers rotation includes one of baseball¡¯s top pitching prospects and one of baseball¡¯s former top overall Draft picks. Detroit formally welcomed Jackson Jobe and Casey Mize to the final starting group on Saturday morning by optioning Keider Montero to Triple-A Toledo.
Jobe, MLB Pipeline¡¯s No. 5 prospect overall and No. 2 pitching prospect, and Mize won the competition for the final two spots in Detroit¡¯s rotation, following up American League Cy Young award winner Tarik Skubal, Jack Flaherty and Reese Olson. Alex Cobb, signed in December as a free agent to bolster the rotation, will begin the season on the injured list while he works back from right hip inflammation.
Neither Jobe nor Mize fit the stereotype for back-of-the-rotation starters, a testament to the pitching depth the Tigers have assembled largely from within their system. While Jobe showed the progress the Tigers hoped to see after his late-season debut and playoff experience last September and October, Mize paired renewed health with a revamp of his arsenal to make his case as one of the best five options.
Jobe posted a 3.65 ERA in four Grapefruit League starts, allowing seven hits over 12 1/3 innings with four walks and eight strikeouts. All five earned runs he allowed scored on four home runs, including two homers in his last start on March 13 against the Yankees. But with a sharper pitch mix and a curveball he developed in the offseason, he showed the progress in drawing swings and misses that the Tigers challenged him to create.
¡°I think being kind of thrown into the fire last year definitely will make starts early a lot easier, just knowing that I¡¯ve been in some of the biggest situations you can be in,¡± Jobe said. ¡°I think it¡¯ll help a ton. I¡¯ll also have those butterflies and everything before every start, which is what I love. It makes it so fun.¡±
Tigers officials clearly had been hoping to see him progress and earn a spot. Not only does the 22-year-old have some of the highest potential Detroit has seen in a pitching prospect since Skubal and Mize broke into the big leagues five years ago, Jobe¡¯s ascension brings the potential side benefit of a Draft pick. Major League Baseball¡¯s Prospect Promotion Incentive allows teams to earn a supplemental pick after the first round if a ranked prospect spends a full season (or close to it) in the big leagues as a rookie and either wins Rookie of the Year or finishes in the top three in Cy Young or MVP voting before becoming arbitration eligible.
President of baseball operations Scott Harris said going into camp that the team would do the best thing for Jobe regardless of incentives. Jobe¡¯s performance meshed with the motivations.
¡°He¡¯s one of the best prospects in baseball for a reason,¡± manager A.J. Hinch said. ¡°He¡¯s now in a rotation that expects to be good, and he can hold his own perfectly fine. This is the challenge for him, but also what¡¯s best for our team.¡±
For the 27-year-old Mize, the rotation spot represents a comeback nearly on par with his return last year from Tommy John and back surgeries he underwent in 2022. Though Mize cracked last year¡¯s season-opening rotation and made 20 starts and two relief appearances last year, he showed the rust of essentially two lost seasons. Beyond the 2-6 record and 4.49 ERA over 102 1/3 innings, he allowed 10.6 hits per nine innings while his strikeout rate fell to 6.9. He ranked in the bottom 10 percent of Major League pitchers last year in strikeout rate (10th percentile), hard-hit rate (8th percentile), average exit velocity (7th percentile) and expected batting average (4th percentile).
Part of those woes could be chalked up to the typical struggles a pitcher battles in his first year back from Tommy John surgery. But rather than rely on a second-year-back boost, Mize used his first healthy offseason in three years to rework his arsenal, from a higher-velocity splitter to three variations of his slider with different velocities and breaks.
¡°I went into this offseason with a plan to get better,¡± Mize said. ¡°I feel like some of that¡¯s starting to pay off, obviously with the performance this spring, but also with how I earned this spot. It gives me some good confidence going into the season. I¡¯m certainly happy with how things have gone so far, but we¡¯re just getting started.¡±
The results were impressive, even when viewed through the prism of Spring Training results. Mize allowed two runs on eight hits over 16 innings with seven walks and 18 strikeouts. He tossed 11 1/3 scoreless innings before giving up a Jarren Duran home run in the first inning of his last start on Wednesday against the Red Sox.
¡°He¡¯s a fighter,¡± Hinch said. ¡°He will grind. He will push. He will power through things. Everything matters to him. He had a certain intensity, kind of an edge to him this spring because it hasn¡¯t been a perfect journey for him.¡±