The Detroit Tigers have been arguably the feel-good story of the 2025 MLB season so far, riding the continued heroics of Tarik Skubal and a plucky band of position players to an MLB-best 37-20 record that seemingly proved last year's Cinderella playoff run was no fluke.
But baseball is a fickle game, and it only takes one bad break to turn a dream start into a nightmare. The Tigers got one such break on Friday afternoon, when the team was forced to place top pitching prospect Jackson Jobe on the IL with what's being called a right elbow flexor strain.
Alarm bells first went off after Jobe's start against the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday, in which his stuff was notably diminished and he mysteriously missed his postgame media availability. Sure enough, something was up, and now Jobe will miss at least a couple of starts as the Tigers attempt to determine just what's wrong.
The fact that the strain has been classified as Grade 1 (the least severe) is at least a small sigh of relief, as is the fact that Jobe has only been placed on the 10-day IL. There's at least some cause for optimism that surgery won't be necessary. But arm injuries are never something to take lightly, especially considering how much Jobe means to Detroit's present and future — and how much the Tigers were relying on him (among others) to help avoid the fate that befell the team's pitching staff last October.
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Jackson Jobe injury could force Tigers to revert to pitching chaos
Detroit's run to within a game of the ALCS was so improbable in part because of the state of their starting rotation. Skubal was shoving every fifth day, but beyond that, there was nothing but what manager AJ Hinch affectionately dubbed "pitching chaos": all hands on deck, with Hinch mixing and matching like a mad man to try and find 27 outs.
That strategy eventually reached its upper limit in the ALDS. But this year seemed like it might be different: Detroit brought back Jack Flaherty in free agency, Reese Olson was ready to take another step forward, and with Jobe — arguably the top pitching prospect in baseball — waiting in the wings, Skubal would finally have the help he needed.
Now, though, that plan has been thrown overboard once again. Olson, too, is on the IL right now with a finger injury, although it doesn't figure to keep him out long-term. Jobe is the real concern, as it's unclear as of yet when he'll be able to return and whether he'll be able to do so without making his injury much worse. The Tigers still have Skubal, a solid bullpen and a balanced lineup, plus the cushion afforded them by their hot start. If they want to really break through, though, they're going to need all hands on deck come October, and that picture just got a lot cloudier.