Jackson Jobe is back but development is still on the menu

That first start back showed what Jobe can do, and was impressive after nearly 15 months on the shelf. The second showed off the issues he still needs to work on, as the White Sox handled his fourseamer without too much trouble and weren't chasing his power slider-curveball combo. The third saw him pivot more to his sinker against the Pirates, with better results.

This is all still a work in progress, as right now Jobe is still just knocking the rust off. There was plenty of work ahead of him when he was first called up in September of 2024 after skipping through Triple-A in only two starts, and while he's made progress in the interim, the same issues with fourseam swing and miss and the ineffectiveness of his high spin breaking stuff remain intact. Ultimately, hitters are the testing ground, and improving his pitch mix will be the focus as the now 24-year-old Jobe looks to fulfill his potential and develop into a frontline starter.

On Tuesday, Jobe faced his toughest test yet against a dominant Rays lineup that strikes out less than any team in the league. Their only weakness is a minor lack of home run power, but they're still generally middle of the pack in that department, and it may just be a trade-off they're happy to make to put the ball in play more often. Things went reasonably well as Jobe tossed 4.1 quite inefficient innings of one-run ball. He showcased why he's still very much a young and inexperienced work in progress who just needs steady major league time in which to work with Chris Fetter and Robin Lund and figure things out, but he also illustrated why he's not easy to hit either.