The Tigers catcher in waiting has finally arrived.
The road from draft day to the major leagues is often long for catchers. Such was the case for Detroit Tigers backstop Dillon Dingler. A popular second round, 38th overall, selection back in the shortened 2020 draft, Dingler took years to slowly start to put things together offensively. Finally, after a major breakout with the bat at the Triple-A level, he’s in position to help the Tigers as they look to claw their way back to the postseason.
From the beginning, Dingler had uniquely good athleticism for a catcher. Despite his powerful build, he played some center field in his days at Ohio State , and that blend of speed, agility, arm strength, and power, has held up during his four-year tenure in the minor leagues. So has his reputation as a smart ballplayer whose soft spoken nature belies his leadership skills.
The big question has always been how much he would hit and whether he could eventually tap into his power. After spending most of the 2022-2023 seasons struggling to adapt to the Double-A level, Dingler finally put it together enough to advance. A strong campaign at the Triple-A level followed in 2024 in which he shored up his biggest weakness. His defense gives him solid value already, but if he can take the next step with the bat the Tigers are going to love the way they look at the catcher position for many years to come.
As a hitter, the right-handed swinging Dingler has always had a few things going for him that counteracted his weaknesses. He’s a good fastball hitter who doesn’t struggle much against offspeed. He also packs solid raw power as well as the zone discipline to avoid chasing out of the zone too much. Dingler has always done a solid job drawing walks, and he’s developed a bit more than average raw power along the way. Cashing in that raw power for real production has sometimes given him a little trouble, but over the past two seasons he’s put those issues behind him too.
The real problem for Dingler has always been his vulnerability to good breaking balls. Straighter pitches like fastballs and mediocre changeups are little problem, but the benders gave him fits in the upper levels of the minor leagues. It wasn’t just a matter of chasing them either, as even hangers had a tendency to tie him up and he hit for zero power against curveballs, sweepers, and sliders all until he started figuring it out in 2024. That’s going to be a crucial element to watch this year. Major league pitchers are going to throw him a ton of breaking balls because he’s a pretty good fastball hitter.
However, he did make serious progress against breaking stuff last year. Triple-A pitchers had little escape anymore, as Dingler posted a .372 wOBA against breaking balls with a .284 ISO mark.
He started laying off the ones he couldn’t do damage on, whiffing less as a result, and started destroying mistakes. In the process, he cut his overall strikeout rate down from 27.6 percent in 2023, to 20.3 percent with the Mud Hens in 2024. He’s better against curveballs than sweepers and power sliders, and those will still be a challenge for him, but it was a big step forward for the young catcher.
He continued to hammer the fastball, posting a .433 wOBA with a .262 ISO mark. However, he did finally struggle more against offspeed stuff, which is fairly natural as there are only so many really good changeups and splitters until you get to the upper tiers of pro ball. That will be another element to watch this season, but again, all he has to do is hit fastballs and do damage on hangers. We’re not expecting a complete hitter who handles everything. Splitters will probably always give him some trouble in particular.
Nothing really translated to the major leagues, and he certainly struggled, but we’re only talking about 87 plate appearances total. There isn’t much point breaking that down. No doubt he was mainly preoccupied with learning the pitching staff and adapting to the detailed coaching that A.J. Hinch and catching coach Ryan Sienko provide. The challenges in that transition should be largely behind him this season, and Dingler will have a lot more time to show what he can do against major league pitching.
Behind the plate, Dingler proved his defensive bona fides. He graded out as average or better in all the measurable categories. His framing was just average, but his blocking was excellent. While his pop times were also just average, Dingler had the best average mph on his throws to second base as well. No doubt there are still some details to clean up, but the Tigers pitching staff will be very comfortable with Dillon Dingler behind the plate.
2025 outlook
Dingler so comprehensively improved his weakness against breaking balls in Triple-A last year that we may be underrating him slightly with a 45+ grade. He’s not going to rack up the defensive value that Rogers does just yet, but there’s still pretty good potential for Dingler to regularly hit .250 with a good walk rate and say, 15-20 home runs while catching 100 games a season. If he does than we’re probably looking at a consistent 3 WAR catcher who is a possible All-Star in his peak seasons. He won’t get that much playing time out of the gate this season, but if he hits and continues to tune up the finer points of his defensive game, he could certainly overtake Rogers for playing time sometime this season.
On the other hand, Dingler did look lost at the plate through his first two months in the league, so we’ll have to see how it goes. Major league pitchers don’t just spam breaking balls and splitters, they locate them and their breaking stuff is levels better than many Triple-A pitchers. Of course, this is no different for any prospect. The progress he made in 2024 lends a lot of confidence that this isn’t going to be a debilitating weakness for him, but he’ll need time to adjust, as he did at the Triple-A level.
Fortunately, we’re going to get an answer in 2025. Dingler should be catching a lot this season, and if Jake Rogers can’t turn around a bad year at the plate, it won’t be a surprise for Dingler to take over more of the playing time, even if Rogers remains Tarik Skubal’s personal catcher. Dingler isn’t yet the elite defensive catcher of our dreams, but he’s very solid back there and has a chance to be a much more consistent offensive presence than Rogers has ever managed. With Thayron Liranzo bound for Double-A sometime in 2025, the Tigers appear to be in great shape at the most crucial position on the field for years to come.