Jackson Jobe Continues To Expand Unique Pitching Arsenal

Image credit: Jackson Jobe (Photo by Nic Antaya/MLB Photos via Getty Images)

It’s as if Jackson Jobe was built in a lab.

The Tigers righthander is one of the best pitching prospects on the planet and arguably the most unique in the ball-tracking era. Jobe features elite stuff across his pitch mix, generating eye-popping ball movement and velocity. 

Entering the season, Jobe was mixing a mid-to-high-90s four-seam fastball, a cutter at 89-91 mph, a low-to-mid-80s sweeper and a changeup. All graded out at plus to double-plus per our internal Stuff+ metric built from sourced minor league data. With usage was factored in, Jobe produces a 119 Stuff+ grade across his arsenal. That’s an elite score from a starter, as he was tied for first among pitchers with 1500 or more pitches in 2024 alongside Brewers righty Jacob Misiorowski. 

This spring, news of Jobe adding a pair of new pitch shapes began circulating via highlight clips from an offseason bullpen:

• A sinker featuring double the armside run of his standard four-seam and, at its best, sub-10 inches of induced vertical break.
• A curveball with heavier two-plane break than his sweeper and a touch more velocity. 

The sinker this spring has sat 96-97 mph with around 10-11 inches of induced vertical break while playing perfectly off his high-ride four-seam fastball. It also gives him a weapon that runs away from lefthanded hitters, making his fastball hard and unpredictable. The sinker plays off the changeup well thanks to a nearly a 10 mph difference between the two pitches from a nearly-identical release height. 

Jobe now has three different breaking ball shapes: his hard cutter, a now-harder sweeper and the new curveball. All three are high-spin offerings with his curveball boasting raw spin numbers in the 3,000 rpm range. That’s not just the empty readings of some spin number, either. Jobe uses spin to create lots of movement across his mix. His curveball drops and sweeps more than 11 inches in both directions on average. His sweeper has more controllable break in the 7-8 inch range of gloveside movement, while the cutter is a hard and more traditional type of slider. 

Not many pitchers can create ride, armside run and sink on a two-seamer. Even fewer can do it effectively without the shapes beginning to blend. Which is why Jobe’s newfound two-seam offering might put him on a road to a major league breakout sooner rather than later. Having such a deep arsenal of pitches that are effective against a variety of swing profiles lends itself to success as an MLB starter.

So far, Jobe is showing the ability to accomplish just that.