LAKELAND, Fla.— Jackson Jobe stands up, adjusts his jersey and straightens his cap. With a mop of brown hair and a polite demeanor, he looks like a teen interviewing for a job, with the appropriate mix of humility and confidence.

The job is a spot in the Detroit Tigers rotation, and it’s open. Even as an elite pitching prospect, even as he loads his arsenal and bolsters his body, Jobe knows he won’t be handed the job. Respectfully, he plans to earn it and take it.

“You have to trust the process, but at the same time, I’m here to compete for a starting job,” Jobe said as training camp opened. “I want to be in the Opening Day rotation. They want to see a guy that goes right at hitters, attacks hitters, and that’s what I’m here to do, short and sweet.”

It’s what the Tigers would love him to do, and probably expect him to do. He possesses a fastball that touches 100 mph, a six-pitch arsenal and a competitive flair. The Tigers selected Jobe No. 3 overall in 2021 and he’s now one of the top two pitching prospects in baseball, fifth overall, according to MLB Pipeline.

After Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal, Jack Flaherty and Reese Olson, the rotation has two available spots, while newly signed Alex Cobb recovers from hip soreness. Others with varying pedigrees are in the mix, from former No. 1 overall pick Casey Mize, to first-rounder Matt Manning, to veteran Kenta Maeda, to young Keider Montero.

AJ Hinch and his staff haven’t decided roles yet, with six weeks of spring training ahead. Jobe is the shiny prized piece, and the Tigers want to make sure they handle him properly, not distracted by the glare.

Jobe’s debuts have been short but memorable. His MLB debut came in the midst of a September playoff race, and before he entered in the ninth inning of a 7-1 victory over Tampa Bay, the Comerica Park crowd chanted “We want Jobe!”

His playoff debut came a week later, in the seventh inning of Game 2 in Houston with the Tigers leading 1-0. That appearance featured just about everything. Jobe grazed the first batter with a pitch, then gave up a looping single. Mauricio Dubon followed with a perfectly placed bunt. Bases loaded, no outs. The Astros tied it on a fielder’s choice, then took the lead on a Jose Altuve sacrifice fly. That was it for Jobe, 15 pitches, zero hard-hit balls, trailing 2-1.

Welcome to the bigs, kid.

“I thought it was great, honestly,” Jobe said Tuesday. “I was happy with how I handled it. Thankfully we ended up winning the game. That was super cool.”

At 22, Jobe still can say “super cool” and mean it, although that outing might have aged him. The Tigers went on to win 5-2 and ousted the Astros. In Jobe’s four 2024 appearances — two in the regular season, two in the playoffs — he had mixed results, with 5 2/3 innings, six hits, three earned runs, one walk, two strikeouts. That’s a super-small sample size, and it did nothing to dim the Tigers’ hopes for him. Hinch said he plans to let it play out this spring, and wouldn’t set any expectations.

“I think too many of us get into predictions, and that can create limitations, and that’s really unfair,” Hinch said. “I know he’s extremely talented. I know emotionally he can handle the competition this spring. He’s gonna get a ton of opportunity to showcase it, but I’m a big believer in minimizing that noise in someone’s head.”

Scott Harris, president of baseball operations, strikes the same tone. By signing two starting pitchers, Flaherty and Cobb, the Tigers perhaps bought time to be patient. Not that Jobe is overly interested in being patient.

“I could care less about prospect rankings,” Jobe said. “I’m here to win games for the Detroit Tigers and try to stay healthy for a full big-league season. I’m ready to throw however many innings they ask, whether it’s 150, more or less. My stuff’s in a good spot. They wouldn’t have brought me up at the end of the year if it wasn’t good.”

Asked if he’d be crushed if he didn’t make the team out of spring training, Jobe was straightforward.

“I don’t know if I’d use the word crushed,” he said. “If I don’t earn it, I don’t earn it. But I’m pretty confident. I’m ready to rock.”

Jobe missed extensive time in 2023 with lumbar spine inflammation and was sidelined for two months in 2024 with a hamstring injury. In the space of a 15-minute interview, every time the word “injury” came up, he turned around and knocked on his wooden locker.

“I went from a guy that didn’t think he was getting out of Double-A in the end of August, to pitching in the postseason a month later,” Jobe said. “It couldn’t have been more of a 180, honestly, in life. I felt like I handled it super well, on the field and off.”

His confidence and composure are evident, in words and actions. He worked hard in the offseason back home in Oklahoma City to add a curveball and a two-seam fastball, partly to lift his strikeout totals. Tigers pitching coach Chris Fetter visited several pitchers over the winter, and stopped in with Jobe and his personal coach Alex Marney.

With young pitchers, teams are leery of the too-much-too-soon scenario. Sitting a couple lockers down from Jobe is Skubal, who struggled through injuries for three years before blossoming into the best pitcher in baseball. Another locker down is Mize, taken No. 1 overall in 2018 but limited by injuries to 59 big-league starts in four years.

What do the Tigers need to see out of Jobe to be convinced he’s fully ready?

“He’s gotta execute better,” Hinch said. “Across the board he has elite stuff. When you have a young pitcher who comes up with elite stuff, one of the harshest realities is, the guys around the league have probably seen somebody who’s better. It’s not just about having the weapons, it’s the execution that creates the staying power.”

Jobe has competition in his blood. His father, Brandt, is a pro golfer who now plays on the PGA Champions Tour. When Jackson was 4, he helped caddy for his dad during a practice round before the Masters.

Young Jackson might have considered a career in golf except he quickly found football and baseball, and then found a blistering fastball. He had to give up golf two years ago because of his back injury, which required rest and rehabilitation. He built up his core muscles through weight training and says he feels readier than ever for the next step.

Pitching in the playoffs showed him how tough it can be, and reminded him why he’s here and what he craves. Trust me, he doesn’t aim low.

“It’s pretty simple,” Jobe said. “I want to win games, I want to win championships, I want to have a Hall of Fame career. I’m not here to just coast through the big leagues. This has been my dream since I was 4. I want to be the best, the No. 1 guy. How long that’ll take, I don’t know.”

With young pitchers, nobody knows. All we know right now is, the job is open, and Jobe is eagerly, stridently applying.

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