Jacob Robson

Jacob Charles Robson

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 182 lb.
• School Mississippi State University
• High School Vincent Massey Secondary School
• Debut August 12, 2021

• Born November 20, 1994 in London, ON CAN

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Biographical Information

OF Jacob Robson played for Team Canada before making his major league debut in 2021.

Robson played for Canada in the 2011 COPABE junior championship. He also competed in badminton and volleyball in high school. In the 2012 World Junior Championship, he hit .290/.488/.355 with 12 walks in 9 games, going 6-for-7 in steal attempts, starting in center for Canada. He had 15 error-free chances. Hitting leadoff in the championship game, he was 1 for 3 with a walk in a 6-2 loss to the US. He led the event in walks (3 ahead of runner-up Aaron Sayers) and was second in steals (six shy of his US counterpart, Ryan Boldt).

The San Diego Padres took him in the 30th round of the 2012 amateur draft but he opted for college. He struggled in his collegiate debut at .206/.297/.227, though he did play in the 2013 College World Series. He was 1 for 16 with 8 walks as a sophomore before his season ended due to injury. In 2015, he found his stride again, batting .324/.436/.368 with 21 steals in 27 tries. He was 8th in the Southeastern Conference in swipes and 10th in OBP. He hit .318/.437/.518 for the Bourne Braves in the Cape Cod Baseball League. He tied for 4th in the league in doubles and outhit teammates like Pete Alonso. His last year of college, his batting line was .321/.414/.413; he stole 18 bases in 20 tries and scored 42 runs in 50 games. He tied Dom Thompson-Williams for 8h in the SEC in stolen bases.

The Ontario native was chosen by the Detroit Tigers in the 8th round of the 2016 amateur draft, one round before Daniel Pinero, his future Team Canada teammate. The signing scout was Justin Henry. He made his pro debut with the GCL Tigers West. After 28 games (.267/.368/.347, 14 SB, 16 BB, 16 R), he moved up to the Connecticut Defenders and put up better batting stats (.329/.440/.461, though he was only 1-for-3 in steals). He was 8th in the Gulf Coast League in steals.

Jacob split 2017 between the West Michigan Whitecaps (.329/.408/.395 in 60 G) and Lakeland Flying Tigers (.277/.351/.388 in 58 G). He drew 54 walks and stole 21 bases but was caught 18 times. He tied Dominic Ficociello for 5th in the Tigers farm system in runs (65), tied Harold Castro and A.J. Simcox for 4th in triples (5), was 4th in steals (but 1st in times caught), 3rd in hits (after Blaise Salter and Omar Infante), 3rd in average (after Salter and Mike Gerber) and tied Wade Hinkle for 4th in walks. Baseball America named him Detroit's #25 prospect.

Robson continued his climb in 2018 with the Erie SeaWolves (.286/.382/.450 in 67 G) and Toledo Mud Hens (.305/.369/.427 in 57 G), debuting in AAA at age 23 and doing just fine. He led the Detroit chain in runs (7 ahead of Daz Cameron), hits (142, 5 ahead of Dawel Lugo) and doubles (29) and was third with 62 walks (behind Christin Stewart and Jordan Pearce). He was 6 for 25 with 4 walks and 6 runs that winter for the Estrellas de Oriente, backing up Junior Lake in center field.

He then made his debut for Canada's senior national team, in the 2019 Pan American Games Qualifier. He struggled at 2-for-17 with three walks, two runs and a RBI, but they won a spot in the 2019 Pan American Games. He was with Toledo that summer, splitting time between left and right and producing at a .267/.352/.399 clip with 53 walks, 61 runs and 25 stolen bases (in 35 tries). He tied Brady Policelli for 9th on the Tigers farm in runs, was 3rd in walks (behind Cameron and Isaac Paredes) and tied for 3rd in steals. In the 2019 IL, he edged Christian Colon for the steal lead, by one. Baseball America listed him as the Tigers' 24th-best prospect.

The 2020 minor league season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Robson returned to action in 2021, back down in Erie but on fire (.424/.531/.712, 14 BB, 17 R, 10 RBI, 9 2B in 18 G). He then played for Canada in the 2020 Americas Olympic Qualifier and fared much better than in his previous Team Canada appearance. Batting 2nd behind Wes Darvill, he singled off Erling Moreno his first at-bat and scored on a Pinero hit, going 3-for-4 with two runs and three RBI to beat Colombia. He drove in a run in their win over Cuba to win a spot in the Super Round. He had a one-out single in the first off Enmanuel De Jesús, saving Canada from being no-hit as they got no other hits in a loss to Venezuela. His 4th-inning homer off Team USA's Homer Bailey tied the game at one; he went 2 for 3 in a loss and his home run was Canada's only run off the tourney champs. Finally, he was 1 for 4 in a concluding loss to the Dominican national team. He had hit .421/.476/.684 with five RBI, three runs and one steal in five games, handling eight putouts in left. He led Canada in hits (8, two ahead of Eric Wood), tied Pinero for the team RBI lead and led the team in OPS (227 ahead of Wood). He tied for second in the event in hits (3 behind Julio Rodríguez) and tied for seventh in RBI.

Between his torrid start for Erie and Canada, when he returned to the minors it was with Toledo, and he remained red-hot (.409/.458/.636, 6 R, 6 RBI in 5 G), perhaps on the verge of his first taste of MLB. He was at .275/.397/.433 after 51 games with Toledo then was called up when Niko Goodrum was injured. In his MLB debut on August 12, 2021 against the Baltimore Orioles, he pinch-hit for Grayson Greiner in the 6th and was retired by Marcos Diplán, who had also played in the Olympic qualifiers that year (for the Dominicans). He stayed in to play left, with LF Eric Haase moving to catcher, and grounded out against Tyler Wells in his other at-bat.

Related Sites

• Jacob Robson on mlb.com
• BR Register page