Hinch confident in Jobe for ALDS: 'This kid can handle it'

CLEVELAND – The Tigers called up Jackson Jobe, baseball’s top pitching prospect, for the final week of the season and added him to their AL Wild Card Series roster with the idea that his talent could make an impact. Don’t expect their belief in him to change after a two-run, one-out relief appearance in Wednesday’s series-clinching game in Houston.

“I know I put him in a tough, unfamiliar spot, but this kid can handle it,” manager A.J. Hinch said Friday. “And I'm excited to get him back on the mound. That's exactly what I told him. And I expect him to be on this roster. We haven't announced our roster yet, but he's equipped to do this and pitch as many innings as we need.”

While Jobe allowed runs, he wasn’t hit hard. Houston’s four balls in play off him averaged 71.8 miles per hour in exit velocity. The hardest-hit ball was Jose Altuve’s sacrifice fly into foul territory in right field at 92.5 mph. Jobe's inning fell apart on a sacrifice bunt that turned into a single, and a grounder to first that allowed Victor Caratini to beat a throw to the plate.

“If anything, the way that he threw the ball gives me more confidence that he can handle it,” Hinch said. “I mean, he didn't even get hit hard. There wasn't a ball that was on the barrel.”

Just as the Tigers’ confidence in Jobe isn’t shaken, Jobe does not seem to be fazed by the outing.

“Aside from the first pitch I threw [that hit Caratini], I thought I made some pretty good pitches,” Jobe said. “Things just didn’t happen to go my way, but that’s baseball. It’s not the first time that has happened. It won’t be the last time.

“But as far as the whole experience, I felt good. I felt comfortable. It felt like just another outing. Once I get out there and I’m looking at the glove, I’m just pitching. I’ve been doing it all year, and it feels like it did when I was in Double-A this year.”

The one time when Jobe showed his inexperience had nothing to do with his pitching. It was his Pitchcom device, which he had to replace when he couldn’t hear catcher Jake Rogers.

“I had never put the Pitchcom in the hat myself,” Jobe said. “So I’m getting that deal out, trying to put it in, and there are 40,000 screaming fans, and I’ve never done this before, so hopefully, this thing can get right in there quickly.”

Walking chaos?
Long before Hinch became the master of pitching chaos, he was a staunch opponent of the intentional walk, having famously not issued any during his final season managing the Astros in 2019. He had to come around to the strategy with a young Tigers pitching staff, but he had never walked the same hitter three times in a game until José Ramírez on July 9 during a 9-8 loss.

“That's a lot,” Hinch said at the time, “but that tells you what I think about Ramírez.”

So does this: The Tigers issued 11 intentional walks this season. Four of them went to Ramírez, who hit .347 (17-for-49) off Detroit pitching this year with five doubles, five homers and 12 RBIs.

Now that the Tigers are mixing and matching pitchers in games when Tarik Skubal doesn’t start, will Ramírez still get the free pass? Hinch isn’t giving away his strategy, but his one-liners about Ramírez in Friday’s workout day media session show his respect for (and maybe a little fear of) Ramírez hasn’t changed.

“José is going to be somewhere in the lineup … unless he needs a day off,” Hinch joked.

Ironically, Hinch’s two best matchup options against Ramírez out of the bullpen are the two pitchers on the roster who have intentionally walked him: Will Vest (1-for-6, three walks, one intentional, three strikeouts) and Beau Brieske (1-for-4, three walks, two intentional).