DETROIT — Jackson Jobe stood tall at his locker this weekend and talked about baseball, learning and growth.As he did so, Justin Verlander’s high-tech chessboard sat in the empty locker next to him.Slowly, Jobe has started learning chess. He’s mostly playing on his phone to get a grasp on the game.“It will give you a score so everyone has an idea of how good they are,” Jobe said. “I’m definitely at the bottom of the totem pole.”Jobe is still getting a handle on the game of kings. But when it comes to baseball, Jobe’s raw scores only leave so much to be desired. Jobe has a 105 Stuff+ rating in his first four starts back from last year’s Tommy John surgery. That puts him alongside names such as Zack Wheeler, Dylan Cease and Joe Ryan in terms of the sheer nastiness of his pitching profile.“As humbly as I can say it, I think my arsenal is really, really good,” Jobe said. “For a starting pitcher, I think it’s probably up there. My command and execution is very far behind that.”Jobe has been a hot topic for years, ever since the Tigers drafted him No. 3 in 2021. Because of all the hoopla, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact Jobe is still only 24 years old, fresh off a major injury and still discovering himself as a pitcher and as a person. He has a 3.93 ERA in a small sample this season, a respectable number even with an ugly start against the Chicago White Sox, when Jobe said he had “a case of the homers.”What comes next is putting the puzzle together, morphing from a young arm who looks like he should dominate on paper to a stud who’s actually doing it in the game.“All the work in the bullpen that I did for seven months getting my stuff back and reading the Trackman, the numbers can only tell you so much,” Jobe said. “The thing they can’t tell you is how the hitters react to it.”Hence all the adjustments Jobe has been making recently. He toyed with his curveball grip before his last outing, moved his spiked finger up on the baseball and watched as the pitch’s velocity jumped and hitters seemed flummoxed.“That’s why I’m very open to trying things right now,” Jobe said.Jobe has been tinkering with his changeup — often his best swing-and-miss pitch in the minor leagues — trying to recapture the feel he lost after more than a year on the shelf. Jobe is throwing his changeup only 11 percent of the time so far in 2026, down from 16.9 percent last season.“I’ve essentially been throwing without that,” Jobe said, “because I just have had negative feel for it. I’m hoping I get that back, and that will be the last piece.”The changeup might be the last piece Jobe is searching for, but he’s still moving all the other ones around.Among all the mysteries with Jobe, major-league hitters have tagged his four-seam fastball for a .600 slugging percentage this season and a .519 slugging percentage last year. He can throw a fastball that approaches triple digits, and yet the career whiff rate with the pitch is a minuscule 13.6 percent.Jobe’s four-seam currently has a Stuff+ grade of only 99. But the velocity is real. The vertical ride on the pitch is slightly above average. Although Jobe does not get much extension coming down the mound, he is intentionally throwing from a lower arm slot this year, down to 38 degrees compared to 43 last season.“On paper, like you’re saying, it’s a good pitch,” Jobe said. “There’s a lot of context behind why it’s maybe not playing like people think that it should or I think it should.”Those results and that context are large reasons Jobe has featured his sinker more prominently in his past two outings. He threw it 20 times and went to the pitch against both righties and lefties in his latest start.“It’s pretty evident that guys are going up there and trying not to get beat with the fastball,” Jobe said. “Righties and lefties, both. … I don’t really think anyone so far has been able to put a really good swing on the sinker yet, just because they’re so geared up for protecting against the four-seam.”When Jobe was drafted, he was hailed for his ability to throw 3,000 rpm breaking balls. The same arm that once thrived as a high-school quarterback had an innate gift for supinating with his wrist and twirling those monster sliders. But the big, looping pitches were toned down as Jobe ascended to the big leagues. He learned the hard way he needed to sharpen his secondary offerings, seeking something he could throw for strikes. He needed weapons hitters had to respect.Jobe’s slider these days averages 2,723 rpm. Hitters are whiffing against it only 16.2 percent of the time.Jobe knows he needs to get ahead in counts in order to make hitters more vulnerable against his breaking ball. He needs the changeup to give him a non-fastball that falls off the table the other direction. He needs to have the right feel for the curveball and be able to use it for strikes.Even with all that still a work in progress, he’s already contemplating whether a cutter would help tie his arsenal together — though he’s not ready to add it just yet.“I am just trying to get everything I had pre-surgery feel-wise back before I start adding more pitches and taking usage away from something I feel like I need to work on,” Jobe said. “I could easily do that and say I want to throw a cutter. I wouldn’t be using my changeup as much. If I’m trying to think more long term and make myself find my feel for my changeup.”If it seems like there’s a lot going on with Jobe, that’s because there is. As manager A.J. Hinch said, “It’s a fine line with young pitchers. He’s learning, which is really important. I think you also have to be careful not to tinker too much.”Consider Jobe’s age and experience level (71 1/3 innings in the majors). There was a time when Tarik Skubal was a young hurler searching for the strike zone and trying different grips on his changeup. There were years when Casey Mize was struggling to find a reliable third pitch or trying to iron out his mechanics. Not all that long ago, Troy Melton had a 6.00 ERA at San Diego State. He unraveled the mental side of the game and also altered the grips on every pitch but his fastball.As hopes for the Tigers’ season hang by a thread, Jobe is high on the list of players who represent Detroit’s future.He is at a familiar crux — an uber-talented young pitcher who is working and waiting for everything to click.“I’m seeing that my pure arsenal, pure stuff, is kind of carrying me right now,” Jobe said. “I think as my execution and command continue to get better, then I’ll start getting the results that I believe I should be getting.”