Kevin McGonigle deserves all of the praise coming his way. But it obscures an important truth for the Tigers: their best hitter so far has been Dillon Dingler.
In fact, given his Gold Glove presence behind the plate, Dingler has been arguably the Tigers' best player. The 27-year-old is poised to announce himself as one of the top catchers in baseball in his second full season in the majors.
With star lefty Garrett Crochet on the mound for the Red Sox on Sunday, Dingler was in the cleanup spot for Detroit. In the first, he doubled off the wall on a two-strike cutter down in the zone to drive in the Tigers' first run of the game. He singled on a two-strike fastball up in the zone in the fourth, then locked in on a center-cut, 3-1 heater in the fifth and blasted it over the wall in center for a three-run bomb that gave the Tigers a 5-1 lead.
And just for good measure in the ninth, Dingler laced a hanging splitter from righty reliever Jack Anderson into left field for his fourth hit of the day. And he did all that while guiding Framber Valdez through seven strong innings as the Tigers won for the eighth time in their last nine games.
Dingler's first duty is to the pitchers he's catching, not those he's facing. He was nevertheless one of the Tigers' steadiest bats last season, posting a .752 OPS. Now he's one of their most dangerous bats. He leads the team in homers (5) and RBI (18) and is tied for the team lead with McGonigle in extra-base hits (9). He has the sixth highest slugging percentage in the majors. He ranks first among catchers with a .983 OPS.
DING THE BELL 🛎️🛎️🛎️ pic.twitter.com/N7NlcskcPN
— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) April 19, 2026
"His game-planning has sharpened," A.J. Hinch said last week after Dingler drove in the go-ahead run with a clutch eighth-inning double in the Tigers' 2-1 win over the Royals. "His confidence in committing to what he’s trying to do against a particular pitcher has gotten better. He finds the barrel, a lot."
Does he ever. While it's still incredibly early in the season, Dingler entered Monday with the highest rate of barrels per plate appearances in the majors, at 16.4 percent, per Baseball Savant. Aaron Judge (15.8) and Shohei Ohtani (15.5) ranked second and third, respectively. Dingler finished at 6.4 percent last season. And if anything, Dingler has been unlucky to start the year. His expected batting average of .344 and expecting slugging percentage of .743 -- both top-five marks in the bigs -- are a good deal higher than his actual numbers.
Dingler's big hit against the Royals last Tuesday came off right-handed reliever Nick Mears. Afterward, he said his biggest area of growth with the bat from last season, with the help of the Tigers' hitting staff, is “being able to categorize pitchers ... being able to know what the at-bat is going to look like, especially in the situation that you’re coming in." Dingler knew, in this case, that Mears is "pretty much a two-pitch guy," with a couple different fastballs. Once he worked the count to 2-0, "I was going to take a chance regardless, especially knowing what you’re going to get."
He got a fastball down in the zone, dropped the bat head on it and ripped it through the third baseman and into the left field corner: "Threw a ball in the spot I was looking that I was able to get good wood on," he said.
"He’s satisfied with a simple single, but he knows he can drive the ball, get extra-base hits, he hits the ball out of the ballpark. And he does it while we’re all over him in between innings about pitch-calling and his setup and running the game behind the plate," said Hinch. "I appreciate his preparedness."
Two games later, on the heels of a rare day off, Dingler homered off a righty, doubled off a lefty and lined out twice. No, he won't swing it like this all season. The only qualified catcher with an OPS of at least .900 last season -- and the first in 13 years -- was Cal Raleigh, who hammered 60 home runs. It's a highly taxing position where offense is generally treated as a bonus. But Dingler's defense is already elite, from pitch-calling to framing to throwing. You won't find a stronger arm behind the plate. If his OPS settles in somewhere in the .800's -- a mark that only three catchers reached last season -- Dingler will be one of the best in the business at his position.
And one of the more valuable assets in the sport. His fWAR right now is tied for eighth in the majors among position players.
"As he’s settled in — and Jake (Rogers) has helped him a ton, (catching coach Ryan) Sienko has been steady for him — he’s developing into a real stable part of a good team," said Hinch.
