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Ben Jacobs is emerging as a prospect to watch in the Detroit Tigers system. A third-round pick last year out of Arizona State University, the 22-year-old southpaw is currently on a five-game run at High-A West Michigan in which he has fanned 33 batters while allowing just 10 hits and two runs across 26 frames. Moreover, he has gone 15 scoreless over his last three starts.
His overall numbers are solid. On the season, the erstwhile Sun Devil has logged a 34.4% strikeout rate, a 3.50 ERA, and a 3.80 FIP over 87 1/3 innings, all but 16 2/3 of them with his current club. Jacobs made his professional debut with Low-A Lakeland in April, but earned a promotion by the end of the month.
He entered the year with a relatively low profile. When our 2026 Tigers Top Prospects list came out in late February, Jacobs ranked just 24th with a 40 FV. Fast forward six months and it’s hello helium. Recently asked for a scouting update, Eric Longenhagen called the Huntington Beach native an “arrow up guy,” adding that he now merits a 40+ FV.
How has Jacobs changed since signing with the Tabbies last summer?
“Cleaning up my mechanics has been a big thing,” Jacobs told me in mid-July. “Really getting after it in the weight room and putting on muscle. I’ve put on roughly 10 pounds since I got drafted, with the body fat going down. My body is completely different from a year ago.”
“By cleaning up my mechanics, my extension went up something like five or six inches from last year,” the 6-foot-1, 195-pound left-hander went on to say. “That helps my fastball by giving me more perceived velocity. Being more directional toward home plate was one of our goals. That has allowed me to push a lot more of my energy down the mound and extend my extension.”
Longenhagen addressed those mechanical adjustments in the update:
“The Tigers have changed Jacobs’ delivery, and it seems to have unlocked more velocity and better strike-throwing than he showed at ASU. In college he was pitching exclusively from the stretch. Now he’s using a hybridized motion where he begins in what looks like the stretch, then steps his right foot back toward third base before he gets into the meat of his delivery. It’s a much more athletic look than the static college version and appears to let Jacobs build more full-body momentum. He’s throwing harder, more 92-94 [mph] after he finished his collegiate career sitting 90-91. His stride direction also appears to have changed some, with his front foot landing more toward the third base side of his body.”
Jacobs mentioned the added velocity when we spoke, and he also told me that he is getting “a tick more vert,” with his heater inching up from 18-19 a year ago to 19-20 in the current campaign. Conversely, his vertical approach angle is down slightly, which he attributes to the extra extension created by his releasing the ball more out front.
Doing a better job of landing his pitches in the strike zone is helping to elevate his prospect status. While command has been a concern, the lefty has issued two or fewer free passes in four of his last five outings. Even so, his walk rate is 11.5% on the season, and that will need to go down if he hopes to climb the ladder to baseball’s highest level. As Longenhagen put it, Jacobs is “still a little more walk-prone than is ideal.”
I asked Jacobs about the issue when we talked in July.
“It’s been more mental than physical,” he opined. “In the past, I’ve kind of told myself it might be a mechanical thing, or it might be a grip thing. That can kind of snowball in your head. What Rico [Dan Ricabal], my pitching coach, and I have been doing is kind of simplifying everything. We’re simplifying my direction and trying to push my energy to where I want to throw the ball. I’m finding that I basically need to just focus on being competitive and not thinking too much.”
People thinking that he throws a changeup is a misnomer he’d like to see corrected.
“It’s been a splitter since I was at Arizona State,” explained Jacobs, whose four-pitch repertoire is rounded out by a curveball and a slider. “A lot of people think it’s a changeup, and I want them to know that it’s a splitter. They’re two completely different pitches when it comes to arm speed, spin, and direction. Mine is 1,200 [rpm], which I feel would automatically make it a splitter. Sometimes the horizontal can make it look like a changeup — it’s more of a diagonal, horizontal splitter rather than a true north-south — but it’s still a splitter.”
Regardless of definition, Longenhagen referred to it as Jacobs’ “trademark” pitch. According to our lead prospect analyst, the offering has “a miss rate approaching 50%.” Factor in the improving command and a fastball that is “missing bats at a plus-plus rate,” the young left-hander truly has his arrow pointing in the right direction.