Jackson Jobe’s MLB callup reminiscent of David Price

This story was excerpted from Jason Beck’s Tigers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

DETROIT — Most fans remember David Price as the five-time All-Star and 2012 AL Cy Young winner who led the league in innings pitched twice and made 30 or more starts in seven of his 14 seasons, including parts of two campaigns with the Tigers. But before Price became an ace, he was a mid-September callup as a reliever for the resurgent Rays in their first postseason push in franchise history in 2008.

Price was a highly rated pitching prospect at the time, and the top overall pick in the MLB Draft the year before. He went 12-1 with a 2.30 ERA in 19 starts across three levels in the Rays’ farm system before his debut. Two weeks after Price’s Minor League season ended at Triple-A Durham, his MLB career began with 5 1/3 innings of bulk relief at Yankee Stadium.

As the Tigers prepare to welcome Jackson Jobe to their bullpen to boost their postseason charge, it’s hard not to sense some vibes between what the Rays did and what the Tigers could be trying to do, even if their situations are different. While teams could call up as many players from the 40-man roster as they wanted with expanded September rosters back in 2008, spots are more limited now, which is why the Tigers designated Shelby Miller for assignment to make room for Jobe (Detroit’s No. 2 prospect).

“I think the message has been clear on every front: We’re trying to do everything we can to use our best guys in the best situations to win as many games as we can,” manager A.J. Hinch said on Tuesday. “Jackson’s a talented kid. He has worked his way through the Minor Leagues and he has some of the most electric stuff in the game. So obviously, bringing him up here means that we think we can get better. It means we think he can help us win and we’re going to utilize everything we can to win as many games as we can.”

The Rays had a postseason berth pretty well set when they made their move, though they were trying to hold off the Red Sox for an AL East title. But while Price made a handful of regular-season appearances — including two relief outings at Comerica Park — his bigger contribution came in the postseason, when he became a late-inning asset.

Price closed out two of the Rays’ four wins over the Red Sox in the ALCS, earning his first MLB win in Game 2 and recording the final four outs of a winner-take-all Game 7 at Tropicana Field. He recorded the final seven outs of the Rays’ Game 2 win over the Phillies in the World Series, their only victory of the Fall Classic.

The Rays tried an even bolder move in 2020 with Shane McClanahan, their top pick from the 2018 Draft.

After working as a starter in the Rays’ system in 2019 and spending the pandemic-shortened 2020 regular season at their alternate training site, the left-handed McClanahan made his MLB debut in Game 1 of the ALDS against the Yankees, retiring one of his three batters. He pitched in four games that postseason, including three outs in Game 2 of the World Series against the Dodgers, but he generally worked in lower-leverage situations. McClanahan pitched with a lead only once, a six-run advantage against the Yankees in the seventh inning of Game 3 in the ALDS.

Jobe has worked exclusively as a starter at every step of his path up the Tigers’ farm system since being taken third overall in the 2021 MLB Draft. He stretched out to 100-plus pitches three times at Double-A Erie, and threw 83 and 86 pitches in his two starts for Triple-A Toledo. The Tigers made it a priority for Jobe to learn how to pitch efficiently, pound the strike zone and work deeper into games before promoting him to Triple-A on Sept. 8. Even so, his five walks over nine innings for the Mud Hens showed some room for improvement.

And yet, with the way Jobe responded to an inning of relief work in Spring Training, hitting 100-plus mph three times while nearing 3,000 rpm of spin on his slider to earn a save against the Twins on March 12, it makes the prospect of throwing him into a crucial game over the final week tantalizing, even with limited experience above Double-A. As Hall of Fame manager Jim Leyland would say, give me talent, and you take experience.

“His stuff is plenty good enough to give them an inning or two,” one American League evaluator said when asked about how Jobe might handle the relief role.

“I’m hoping to get him in this [Rays] series for a lot of reasons,” Hinch said. “But we’re going to continue to try to put our guys in a good spot and use them accordingly.”

After that, the idea of Jobe lurking in the bullpen for postseason work is fascinating. Keep in mind that the expanded 28-man roster will go back to 26 for the postseason, meaning the Tigers would have to trim one pitcher from their current staff. But Detroit would need just three starters at most for a best-of-three AL Wild Card Series. The way the Tigers have used openers and bulk relievers, they might not even use that many.