Tigers have notable incentive for giving Jackson Jobe an Opening Day roster spot

If there was any silver lining to the hip injury that will start Alex Cobb on the injured list this season, it's that No. 1 prospect Jackson Jobe will have a better shot at making the Detroit Tigers' Opening Day roster. With Cobb, the Tigers had just one open spot in the rotation for four pitchers to fight over; now they have two.

Jobe is still facing competition from Keider Montero, Casey Mize, and Kenta Maeda, and the club isn't promising anything to anyone, but it wouldn't have been surprising if Jobe was the one to win that last spot before Cobb reported hip discomfort. The Tigers love their top prospects, and Jobe even pitched more than the any of the other three in the postseason last year (even though his 1 2/3 innings against the Astros and Guardians didn't go all that well).

The Tigers have some additional incentive in giving Jobe a rotation spot this year. If he wins AL Rookie of the Year or finishes in the top three of Cy Young voting, Detroit will get an extra first-round draft pick (subscription required).

Jackson Jobe could earn the Tigers a draft pick if he wins AL Rookie of the Year, finishes as a top Cy Young contender

There are a couple of caveats here: Jobe would need to accrue a full year of service time to be eligible for either award, but the Tigers might want to game the system a little and keep him from reaching that benchmark to maintain an extra year of team control over him.

It feels unlikely the Tigers would take that route given their rotation needs all the help it can get right now, and having any combination of Montero, Mize, and Maeda as the last two starters in the rotation is far from ideal. Jobe is still a relatively unknown quantity, but he's soon to be baseball's No. 1 pitching prospect (when Roki Sasaki graduates, which shouldn't take him long) and has already received high praise at Tigers camp.

Already, MLB.com has gone as far as to predict that Jobe will win AL Rookie of the Year, citing last year's winners Luis Gil and Paul Skenes as breaking the starter drought since the Tigers' own Michael Fulmer in 2016. Jobe also tweaked his breaking ball to act more like a curveball and added a two-seamer to his arsenal. After a live BP, Jake Rogers, who was catching Jobe, said, "He was electric, man."

It shouldn't come as a surprise if Jobe makes it onto the Opening Day roster. At this point, it's kind of a no-brainer for all parties involved, as long as he continues on a positive trajectory.