DETROIT -- Tigers catcher and American League All-Star Dillon Dingler is considered day to day with a right hand contusion after leaving Wednesday’s 6-1 win over the Athletics following a foul tip off his right hand.
X-rays were negative for structural damage, manager A.J. Hinch said. However, Dingler is still dealing with swelling in the hand, but he avoided a stint on the injured list.
Dingler, selected to his first All-Star Game as a reserve by player vote, had his throwing hand on his right knee as Troy Melton’s 95 mph fastball hit off Jacob Wilson’s bat. The ball seemed to hit the base of Dingler's thumb, the seams of the ball leaving a mark as he shook his hand in pain. Hinch and head athletic trainer Ryne Eubanks checked on Dingler, who stayed in the game after a couple of warmup tosses to third baseman Kevin McGonigle.
By the next inning, however, the area had already swollen enough to become a bigger problem.
“He wanted to continue,” Hinch said, “threw a couple [warmup throws], didn’t feel like he had a great grip but could continue. Came in the dugout, and it started to swell up a little bit, so we sent him for X-rays.”
Jake Rogers began preparing to pinch-hit for Dingler when the inning began. He slugged a two-run home run off lefty Jeffrey Springs before taking Dingler’s place behind the plate to catch Melton.
“[Pitching coach Chris Fetter] did a really good job of seeking me out and throwing me into a crash course of Melton’s plan,” Rogers said. “Obviously, I’ve caught Melton a hundred times, and at the end of the day, you have to resort to his strengths. But I think you have to be ready for anything, and I think that proves you have to do your homework before the series. I was not in the meeting today with Melt and Ding and Fett, but just doing a little homework on these guys against right-handed hitters before the series.”
Rogers started at catcher on Thursday. The Tigers also called up catcher Eduardo Valencia, their No. 21 prospect, from Triple-A Toledo to provide depth. It marks his first Major League stint.
Dingler entered Thursday tied for fourth in the Majors with a 3.9 fWAR, and he is just the third Tiger in the last 26 years to post 19 home runs and 60 RBIs before the All-Star break. His RBI total was tied for seventh among AL hitters entering play Thursday.
The Tigers have a capable fill-in with Rogers, their primary catcher for two seasons before an oblique injury opened the door for Dingler last season. Rogers hit 21 homers in 2023, and he has been working on his swing to get his timing back in recent weeks while Dingler has earned the majority of playing time.
“Guiding this staff today, I thought Jake did a great job of jumping in,” Hinch said. “His calm, his demeanor, it’s perfectly suited for random things that come up during the game. His blood pressure and his stress level don’t really elevate ever, so a lot of trust in him, but I thought he had a great game on both sides.”
The 26-year-old Valencia is a more offensive option, slugging his way onto the 40-man roster with a 24-homer, 95-RBI season last year between Toledo and Double-A Erie. His numbers have dropped off slightly this year, but he has been red-hot since June, bringing his season totals to 16 homers, 48 RBIs and an .838 OPS while bouncing between catcher and first base.
“This is an organizational win and a player win, watching him pull himself out of the early-season drought that he was in,” Hinch said. “We were really excited with what he was doing in camp, his bat speed, his exit velos, his ability to cover different pitches, just the feel for hitting, [playing] multiple positions. And then we send him off to Triple-A and he really had a rough go of it getting his season underway, but never backed down.”
To open a roster spot for Valencia, Detroit designated outfielder/DH Jahmai Jones for assignment, potentially ending his Tigers tenure after he became a success story last season. The well-traveled Jones batted .287 with seven home runs and 23 RBIs last year as a specialist against left-handed pitching, including two home runs as a pinch-hitter, but struggled to find his form all season following a solid performance for Korea in the World Baseball Classic.
Jones hit just .137 (13-for-95) this year, with two homers, seven RBIs, 10 walks and 35 strikeouts. His struggles, along with more effective at-bats from callups Hao-Yu Lee and Ben Malgeri, led to a drop in playing time until he was left without a set role. Jones went a week without an at-bat before starting at DH on Wednesday.
“Last year, he delivered time and time again,” Hinch said. “Being able to change decisions that are made on the other side for fear of what he could do coming off the bench was something that I saw over the last year-plus. This season, he had a hard time either getting on the fastball or sitting offspeed, and he found himself a lot of times in between. The at-bats got less productive, and he just looked less and less comfortable. And as that happens, because you’re only in the game at the biggest moments and the biggest situations against the higher-end relievers at the back of games, it just piled up on him.
“We couldn’t get him out of the hole, he got caught in between, and ultimately we needed to use the roster spot differently. I still believe in him. I think he’s going to land on his feet, and I still fear him against left-handed pitching. We’ll see him in the big leagues again, either for us or another team.”