OK, I give. I didn’t anticipate the Detroit Tigers to have one of the best document in baseball every week into June. Or at any level within the season, to be sincere. All of us knew that this was a playoff crew with some creating younger expertise nonetheless within the pipeline; a return to the postseason and a run on the AL Central title appeared like cheap targets. However the Tigers haven’t solely completed what was anticipated (Tarik Skubal’s continued excellence) and hoped for (former no. 1 picks Spencer Torkelson and Casey Mize leveling up), they’ve gotten breaks they might not even have dreamed of (Zach McKinstry’s .360 OBP).
However one apparent place the Tigers had been set to enhance was behind the plate. Jake Rogers is a terrific defender, and never as unhealthy a hitter as I assumed earlier than I seemed up his numbers. Which is to say I assumed his numbers had been horrendous; they had been merely unhealthy. Rogers was one in all simply 12 gamers to hit beneath .200 in 300 or extra PA final 12 months; out of 286 gamers who hit that enjoying time threshold, he was within the backside 20 in wRC+.
Nice protection behind the plate covers for lots of offensive sins, however talking usually, playoff groups don’t prefer to have a man within the lineup each day who makes outs 75% of the time. Certainly, there’s a solution to obtain equal protection with out giving up fairly a lot offense?
Excellent news; Dillon Dingler is right here, and he can do higher than that.
Dingler has been in Detroit’s system for some time; he was the primary choose within the second spherical of the 2020 draft out of Ohio State. (Which is sort of awkward, an Ohio State man going to play in Michigan. But when the Columbus Blue Jackets can have 4 Michigan Wolverines on their roster at one time, the Tigers can absolutely survive having one Buckeye.)
As a bodily mature faculty prospect at an up-the-middle place, I anticipated Dingler to maneuver rapidly, and he might need if not for a meniscectomy and innumerable damaged bones in his fingers. That is Dingler’s sixth skilled season and he’s performed 100 video games solely as soon as. Even for a catcher, that’s not quite a bit, and it explains why a participant who performed 50 video games in Double-A in his age-22 season didn’t debut within the majors till he was virtually 26.
By means of his first 46 video games in 2025, Dingler is hitting .296/.328/.467. His 126 wRC+ is tied for third amongst catchers with not less than 150 PA; he’s fourth amongst catchers in WAR, behind Cal Raleigh (by quite a bit), Will Smith, and Gabriel Moreno (by a pair tenths of a win). Good firm to maintain. He leads all Tigers place gamers in WAR, and in case you embrace pitchers within the calculus, Dingler is second on the crew in WAR behind solely Skubal.
Spectacular, to say the least.
Dingler is already tickling Rogers’ WAR whole from final season due to his bat, which is productive with out setting the world on hearth. There are actual holes in Dingler’s offensive recreation. His plate self-discipline is poor; he has a 14th-percentile chase charge and a first-percentile stroll charge. He’s walked simply 5 occasions (plus three hit-by-pitches) in 179 plate appearances. He strikes out an excessive amount of. His exit velocities are common.
However Dingler will get his cash’s price. He has 12 hits this season with a projected distance of 275 ft or extra; eight of them have been to the pull facet, and 5 of these have been residence runs. His in-air pull charge is within the high quarter of the league. Dingler is a wonderfully trendy hitter.
However it additionally seems that he, like Rogers, is a terrific defensive catcher.
Dingler is seventh amongst main league catchers in framing runs this 12 months, which is superb however not an outlier. He’s a 3rd of a run forward of Austin Hedges, as an illustration, however in additional than twice as many innings behind the plate. Good framing, then, however he’s not making Patrick Bailey sweat both. By way of controlling the operating recreation, it’s extra of the identical: Dingler’s acquired one of many strongest arms within the majors, however post-knee harm, he’s not posting sub-1.8 pop occasions. That additional tenth or two misplaced earlier than the throw leaves Dingler as merely an average-to-above-average thrower, regardless of his cannon arm.
The place he stands out is obstructing. It’s a small pattern, so I’m making an attempt to not get excited, however I’m open to the likelihood that Dingler is one of the best blocking catcher we’ve seen since this sort of factor has been measured.
After the meniscus harm, Dingler moved to a one-knee-down catching posture. That was an enormous tradition struggle factor on Baseball Twitter a 12 months or two in the past; I don’t know if guys who get kicked out of their youngsters’ Little League video games are nonetheless up in arms about this strategy, but it surely doesn’t appear to harm Dingler’s blocking.
Based on Baseball Savant, Dingler has 11 blocks above common this season. No different catcher in baseball has greater than six. That’s already tied for the Twenty fifth-best blocking season since 2018, the primary season Savant has this stat. And we’re solely a 3rd of the way in which by way of the season. Dingler will go the 400-inning mark for the 12 months this weekend; high beginning catchers often log about 1,000 innings behind the plate. On a per-game foundation, Dingler is already having one of the best blocking season since 2018 by any catcher with not less than 40 begins behind the plate.
With the intention to work out what makes Dingler a fantastic blocker, I watched the person work. Once I consider a fantastic blocker, I consider a catcher who strikes his torso round to remain in entrance of the ball, however Dingler’s the alternative. I used to be astonished by how little he strikes.
Each catcher within the league goes one-knee-down in some unspecified time in the future through the pitch; if there’s a backstop who stays on his toes the entire time, none springs instantly to thoughts. However each catcher will get there in another way. Adley Rutschman, J.T. Realmuto, and Smith begin in an orthodox two-point squat, then drop their total left shin to the bottom through the pitcher’s windup:
Catchers who begin OKD (Dingler, Bailey, William Contreras) stick their proper knee down and splay out the left. Right here’s Contreras blocking a ball within the grime:
You may see how the orthodox stance with the left leg out seems to be simpler to blow up out of — for the aim of standing as much as throw, or for scooting laterally to get in entrance of a 58-foot breaking ball. Rutschman has his dominant leg cocked and loaded, his spikes already dug into the grime. Contreras seems to be like he might use the assistance of a seize bar such as you’d discover in accessible public restroom stalls.
Dingler doesn’t rise up. When a ball bounces to an inconvenient place, he smothers it along with his glove (which seems to be monumental, by the way in which — remind me to begin asking catchers about their mitts the following time I’m going to the ballpark). However the ball doesn’t get away that always, due to how he sits:
Dingler’s left leg isn’t only a steadiness level. He sticks his leg out in entrance of him, and when he actually needs to get low, he virtually straightens it. That drops his butt proper down into the grime, leaving a five-hole that’s sufficiently small to be lined by Dingler’s mitt. He doesn’t must stack the pads and slide as a result of he’s turned his total decrease physique into a big mud pan, funneling all of the detritus off the ground and into a spot the place it may be disposed of simply.
There isn’t a must chase the ball when the ball is already in hand. The mountain, finally, involves Mohammed.
Dingler is certainly not the proper catcher, or hitter, however he’s giving the Tigers Rogers-level protection and Mickey Tettleton-level offense all on the similar time. Possibly you may’t have all of it, however you may have most of it.