Tigers news: Jackson Jobe, Parker Meadows, explaining offensive struggles

It was a scary moment for the pitcher, the organization, and fans alike when Jackson Jobe was taken out of his May 1 start with the Tigers' Double-A team in Erie, after pitching three no-hit innings with five strikeouts. He seemed to tweak something in his leg, and he was attended to by trainers on the mound.

He was coming off of four vicious, no-hit innings in his previous start, when he only walked one batter and struck out six. Jobe is the Tigers' No. 3 overall prospect and their highest-ranked pitching prospect, and he was on a clear course for arrival in the majors next season until he landed on the 7-day IL with a hamstring strain.

It wasn't an arm issue, which is always good, but his time on the IL has elapsed and he doesn't have a timeline for return yet. Still, the Tigers are reportedly still set on having him pitch 100 innings after throwing nearly 80 last year (subscription required). So far, he's sitting at 16 2/3 with a 2.16 ERA, so he's going to have a lot of ground to cover when he does return.

A.J. Hinch explains why Tigers optioned Parker Meadows

In a not-so-hard to believe move, the Tigers optioned Parker Meadows back to Triple-A on Tuesday after he hit .096 over 32 games to start the season. It was a long time coming; Meadows' average only went above .100 for a single game back when the Tigers were still in March. They replaced him on the 26-man with Ryan Vilade, three years after his MLB debut.

A.J. Hinch said of the Meadows demotion: "It was time for him to go get some regular playing time, reset himself, get his timing back and be the player that we expect him to be" (subscription required).

Meadows had a fine enough 37 games in 2023 to earn him a spot as an everyday player (or as everyday as one can get on this Tigers team). His projected offensive stats for 2024 weren't incredible, but they were better than what Meadows has been able to do so far. His defense has been stellar, but it wasn't enough to save him from a trip back to Toledo.

After the Tigers' offensive outburst against the Guardians on Tuesday, making up for a hard Kenta Maeda start to watch, they went back to their usual routine of relatively low-scoring, close games in their last matchup of the series, with the eight and nine hitters (Javy Báez, Jake Rogers, Ryan Vilade, and Carson Kelly) failing to get a hit down in the 5-4 loss.

The Tigers are just barely hanging onto a winning record, so whatever pep got into their step on Tuesday needs to make a quick comeback.