DETROIT -- The quotes leading into a playoff series can often be generic or harmless for fear of providing bulletin board material. But as the Tigers and Guardians prepared to meet for the third time in as many weeks, this time in the American League Wild Card Series in Cleveland, Guardians manager Stephen Vogt’s quote on the opposing catcher stood out.
“I love watching Dillon Dingler catch,” Vogt said hours before Game 1. “It’s really fun. He’s one of the young, exciting catchers in our game.”
It was high praise from a former 10-year Major League catcher about another catcher who was just finishing his first full Major League season. It was also high praise from a Gold Glove voter, which maybe should have been the first clue that Dingler was in line for some hardware at the end of the season.
A month after that quote, Dingler is a Gold Glove catcher, breaking a drought in Detroit that lasted nearly a decade. He beat out not only two fellow finalists, Toronto’s Alejandro Kirk and Boston’s Carlos Narváez, but also defending Gold Glove winner and AL MVP candidate Cal Raleigh, who did not finish among the top three.
To determine the winners at the nine standard positions, the 30 Major League managers and up to six coaches from each team vote from a pool of players in their league, excluding players from their own team. These votes comprise 75 percent of the selection total, with a SABR Defensive Index counting for the other 25 percent. Voting takes place at the end of the regular season, and playoff performance does not factor in.
“This award is one of those things I always dreamed of, to be honest,” Dingler said in a Monday call with local reporters. “I feel like any person that takes a lot of pride in their defensive ability coming up, this is kind of the holy grail of awards that they can receive, especially with the season, the way it ended up. Feeling good about the performance I put out there, having this to show for it is awesome.”
It’s a sign of the incredible respect that Dingler has garnered for his game in a short time. He was well regarded for his defense as a prospect in the Tigers’ system ever since Detroit drafted him in the second round out of Ohio State in 2020, but he was never considered a top prospect. The Tigers knew he could control a game from behind the plate with his strong arm, exhaustive preparation and instinctive game-calling skills, but they expected a transition, which is why he began the season in a timeshare with Jake Rogers.
Once Rogers strained his left oblique swinging in the cage two weeks into the season, Dingler became the No. 1 catcher. The way he performed kept him there.
“Dillon stepped up when Jake got hurt early in the year and just ran with the opportunity,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said last month after Dingler’s star performance in the Wild Card Series. “But he never stopped preparing. He never stopped fighting. He never stopped trying to get better. He's emerging as a front-line catcher because of all that work that he's doing and the credibility that he's gaining and the trust that he's already gotten. And I love that for him. I love that for any catcher that comes up and can get that immediately. It's pretty special.”
Dingler’s defense held up extremely well by virtually any source, including Statcast: His 10 Blocks Above Average trailed only Kirk (21) among AL catchers. His seven Catcher Framing runs matched Raleigh for fifth in the Majors, bolstered by above-average rates at getting called strikes on pitches just inside or just outside the edge of the zone. His 31.7 percent caught-stealing rate trailed only Cleveland’s Austin Hedges among American Leaguers.
The separating factors for Dingler are the arm and the blocking ability. His throws to second averaged 85.3 mph according to Statcast, a full mph better than any other qualified MLB catcher. The only other catcher above 84 mph was the Nationals’ Riley Adams at 84.2.
“Dillon has one of the best arms of any catcher in the big leagues,” Vogt said. “He’s a phenomenal defender.”
Dingler’s arm is so strong, his throws to second often come in screaming on a line, sending pitchers either ducking for cover or sidestepping off the mound when a runner takes off.
“He’s got a great arm,” Tigers ace Tarik Skubal said after hitting the ground to barely avoid a throw during Game 2 of their Division Series in Seattle. “I don’t think I really ever want to get hit by that ball coming back at me. I had stains on my pants the rest of the game. I said, ‘Thanks, bro.’”
“Yeah, I advise pitchers to please get off the mound,” Dingler said later in the Division Series. “I have to work downhill in order to get my best throws off, so sometimes, you know, they don't … make it over their head, so I would need them to get off the mound."
Dingler more than makes up for it by hitting the dirt himself on pitches. Dingler and Raleigh were the only Major Leaguers to catch more than 1,000 innings this season and not have a passed ball.
The first time Dingler caught Skubal in Spring Training workouts, he took a fastball off his forearm. By midseason, he was catching all of Skubal’s starts, supplanting Rogers as the Cy Young winner’s backstop.
“He can do a lot of things,” Skubal said last month. “He can throw. He can back pick. He can get you out of tough situations when you're on the mound. He calls a great game. He's right there with you, battling with you every single pitch. As far as a pitcher, that's all you can really ask for behind the plate.”
The last time the Tigers had a Gold Glove winner, Dingler was a junior in high school. That was 2016, when Ian Kinsler won at second base and Dingler was an All-Federal League catcher at Jackson High School in Massillon, Ohio. The last time the Tigers had a Gold Glove catcher, Hall of Famer Iván Rodríguez won the last of his 13 Gold Gloves in 2007, when Dingler was 9 years old.
Five-time winner Bill Freehan (1965-69) and three-time winner Lance Parrish (1983-85) are the only other Gold Glove catchers in Tigers history. Fittingly, Dingler switched to Parrish’s number 13 going into the season.
“It’s super cool,” Dingler said of joining that group. “I thought that was pretty cool, that that was the company that I was in. It means a lot.”
All of the Tigers’ Gold Glove catchers have won it in consecutive years. Dingler will get his chance to do the same next year, having established himself as part of the core of the Tigers’ roster moving forward.