With the conclusion of spring training baseball from Lakeland, Florida, on the horizon, the focus is starting to shift toward the regular season. We’re just days away from the MLB season starting in Seoul, South Korea. Getting the 2024 season started will be the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres, two NL West rivals looking for a great start to the season in the Seoul Series at Gocheok Sky Dome. It will be a two-game series with game one on Wednesday, March 20th, and game two on Thursday, March 21st. The first pitch for both games will be 6:05 AM EST.
Meanwhile, the Detroit Tigers won’t begin their season until just over a week later when they play the White Sox in the windy city on March 28th at 4:10 PM EST. Tarik Skubal will be on the mound as the Tigers look to get off to a hot start in 2024. Unfortunately, there’s still some time we have to kill before the Tigers 2024 season begins, and one way to do that is talking about some of the promising prospects the Tigers have coming up through the system. Some are expected to make an immediate impact to start the regular season, some have a good shot at climbing the latter to get to the big leagues later in the year, and others have at least a full year of development left… but who is most important for the Tigers’ long-term success? Before answering that, let’s take a look at some of the prospects who should be considered a big part of Detroit’s future.
The Tigers Puzzle Pieces:
When thinking about a team trying to become a World Series contender, the best way to look at it is one big puzzle. Unfortunately, there are still a lot of pieces that aren’t put in place yet for the Tigers. It doesn’t mean that those pieces aren’t already in the organization, but it does mean the Tigers just aren’t quite there yet. However, it’s no secret that there is plenty of optimism and buzz surrounding the Tigers as the season approaches. With the Tigers finishing second place in the division a year ago and the additions the Tigers made to the pitching staff this off-season, not to mention almost nothing but crickets from the Twins organization this off-season, you can put together a great argument as to why Detroit can or will win the AL Central in 2024. However, as far as expectations, that’s the ceiling. This is not a team built to make a deep playoff run, not yet anyway. There are going to be prospects this season that can help Detroit win the Central, but there are prospects to keep an eye on throughout the farm system this season that may be the missing pieces for a World Series run in the somewhat near future.
One of the names that is expected to contribute towards helping the Tigers win their first division title in a decade is Colt Keith, who was described last spring by Tigers beat writer Evan Petzold as someone who has the confidence of Conor McGregor, and the play style of Joey Votto.
Keith overcame being chosen in the fifth round out of high school to climb up the rankings toward the top, earning him a big contract and giving him a chance to make an impact at the major league level this season. If you were to try and make a case that Keith is the most important prospect for the Tigers’ long-term success, you would have a compelling argument. We know Keith will be in the Motor City for the long haul as President of Baseball Operations Scott Harris made it clear that the 22-year-old prospect has the potential to develop into the new face of the franchise when he had Keith put ink to paper this off-season. The Tigers signed Colt Keith to a six-year contract extension that runs through the 2029 season, followed by club options for the 2030, 2031, and 2032 seasons. Keith will make $28,642,500 over the first six years of the deal: $2.5M in 2024, $3.5M in 2025, $4M per season from 2026-27, and $5M per season from 2028-29. The deal also includes a $2M signing bonus, $10M club option for 2030 with a $2,642,500 buyout, $13M club option for 2031 with a $1M buyout, $15M club option for 2032 with a $2M buyout, and escalators for the club option salaries. If all options are escalated and exercised, the contract would be worth $82M over nine years.
In 2023 Keith wasted no time making it clear to everyone that he was too good for Double-A ball and after helping the Erie SeaWolves secure a playoff berth that eventually led to the Tigers’ minor league affiliate winning the championship, he was called up to Toledo where Keith continued to be red hot. With the SeaWolves last season, Keith appeared in 59 games, and when he departed to join the Mud Hens, he left Erie having slashed .325/.391/.585, and he put together solid power numbers with 44 extra-base hits, 14 of which were home runs, and collected 50 RBIs in the 59 games he spent playing at the Double-A level.
Keith carried his momentum over to Triple-A, where he continued to have great success. He slashed .287/.369/.521 in the 67 games he played in for the Toledo Mud Hens last season. He also had 34 extra-base hits, 13 of them being home runs, and Keith collected 51 RBIs in Triple-A in 2023. Keith ultimately slashed .306/.380/.552 with 68 extra-base hits, 27 home runs, and 101 RBIs. He struck out 121 times and walked 60. He is expected to be the primary second baseman for the Tigers this season. Another name to keep an eye on is Max Clark, but don’t expect to see him anytime soon.
There’s been an ongoing debate since Max Clark was chosen third overall by the Tigers in last summer’s MLB Draft about whether or not taking Clark out of high school was a better decision than drafting Wyatt Langford who is inching closer to his MLB Debut. The debate wasn’t fueled as much by the quality of players the Tigers were receiving, it was fueled mostly by the fact the Tigers took a high school bat that would take a few years to develop while Langford could have been knocking on the door before we knew it. Langford is now within striking distance of kicking that door down with the Rangers and is considered as one of the favorites to be rookie of the year.
We won’t know if the Tigers made the right choice until each player gets a few years of experience under their belt, but one thing is for certain… Max Clark is a big part of the future in Detroit.
Because he wasn’t drafted until the summer of 2023, Clark didn’t get a ton of playing time in the Tigers organization last season. He played 23 games, some with the FCL (Florida Complex League) Tigers and Lakeland Flying-Tigers. In those games, Clark slashed .224/.383/.377 with eight extra-base hits, two home runs, and 19 RBIs. He had an impressive walk/strike-out ratio as he went down on strikes just 25 times and was able to walk 21 times.
Clark will be one of the premier players to watch in the Tigers farm system this season and about two years down the road he can become a premier player at the big league level providing a spark for Detroit and it could be when their window to be World Series contenders opens.
Although both Keith and Clark make compelling arguments, a certain pitcher separated himself from others when he made his spring training debut and should be considered the most important prospect for the Tigers’ long-term success.
Why Jackson Jobe is Detroit’s Most Important Prospect for Long-term Success:
You could almost feel the hype from your living room as Jackson Jobe was set to make his first appearance for the Detroit Tigers in spring training. Jobe was the third overall pick in the 2021 MLB Draft and was the last prospect chosen in the first round by Al Avila before he was fired. He was drafted out of Heritage Hall High School in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Jobe pitched for two teams in the Tigers organization in 2022. He appeared in 21 games combined with his time pitching for the Western Michigan Whitecaps and the Lakeland Flying-Tigers. Jobe had a 4-5 record with a 3.84 ERA in 2022. In 77.1 innings pitched, Jobe struck out 81 batters and walked 30.
Business picked up in 2023 for Jobe as he made appearances in the Arizona Fall League and Florida Complex League before returning to the Lakeland Flying-Tigers and then found himself pitching once again with the Whitecaps. Eventually, Jobe found his way to Erie, where he made his first appearance in Double-A pitching for the SeaWolves.
Jobe’s Double-A debut didn’t come until September, and his debut would be the only game he pitched for the SeaWolves in 2023. He pitched six scoreless innings, allowed just four hits, and struck out six in a 76-pitch outing. Jobe will likely start his 2024 season with the SeaWolves and hopefully will work his way to the Toledo Mud Hens before the end of the season.
The 2025 season is when we can expect to see Jobe, whether or not it would be out of spring training or an in-season call-up, I would certainly expect Jobe to be in a Tigers uniform next year at the big league level. There are a couple of things that make him Detroit’s most important prospect in my eyes. There’s nothing more important to a contending team than their pitching foundation. Detroit has a solid rotation this year, but it has some vets that won’t be here long-term. Jackson Jobe has the talent to be the Tigers ace after a year of development. Many Tigers fans, myself included, got the opportunity to see Jobe pitch live for the first time on Tuesday in a 1-0 win against the Minnesota Twins. Yes, he only pitched an inning. Yes, he only faced three batters. Yes, the starters were replaced before Jobe entered the game… but as far as performance goes, you couldn’t have written up a better spring training debut for Jobe. It’s clear why he’s considered a top prospect in baseball and a future ace for the Tigers. His arsenal is nothing short of elite and is borderline unhittable. Jobe’s fastball has gotten stronger since being drafted to Detroit. His fastball was in the 92-94 MPH range in high school and was in the 94-97 MPH range in the fall league, topping out at 98.3 MPH. When he got on the mound in front of Tigers fans watching in Tiger Town and at home on TV, he showcased just how much his fastball improved. Jobe was hitting 101-102 MPH with his fastball. His elite, high-velocity four-seam fastball is deadly with an arsenal that also features a phenomenal slider. At 16 years old, Jobe was throwing a slider that was spinning at 3200 RPM. When Jobe was starting in the AFL, his slider would have placed fifth for the highest average spin rate among MLB sliders. Jobe recently implemented a cutter into his arsenal, and that pitch was also on display against the Twins. Jobe also has a changeup that he’s had a lot of success throughout his young career. Jobe was even better than advertised on Tuesday and separated himself from some of the other top prospects in Detroit’s organization.
Another thing that makes Jobe one of the more important pieces for the long run is when he’s expected to join the team. I see the 2025 season being one that the Tigers can have higher expectations, like actually doing a bit of damage in the postseason if they can get there. While Jobe should be in the majors in 2025, he could establish himself as the ace for the 2026 season, and that’s when I expect the window to open for the Tigers to start thinking about building a World Series contender as pieces start to fall into place. Jobe could enter Detroit’s rotation at the right time. If Jobe can become the ace and become one of the best pitchers in baseball, which he’s plenty capable of being, he can lead the way for the Tigers to get back to competing for a World Series title. Jobe will have Chris Fetter, one of the best pitching coaches in baseball in his corner, which will go a long way when it comes to him developing into an ace.
