Detroit Tigers Young Star Catcher Enjoying Stunning Breakout Season

There’s plenty to be excited about throughout the 2025 MLB campaign as the Detroit Tigers continue to be one of the best teams in baseball.

The Tigers enter play on June 23 with the best record in the league at 49-30, but a recent dark cloud of injuries to the starting rotation has tested depth ahead of the trade deadline.

As the midpoint of the season nears, there’s been enough baseball played to see sticking power in league-wide trends.

This season, it’s been the year of catchers, who are currently outperforming the MLB average OPS by nine points.

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That certainly includes Detroit catcher Dillon Dingler, who is enjoying a breakout year in his second season in the majors.

The Monday update for the All-Star ballot reflects this, ranking Dingler third among catchers with 602,089 votes.

Dingler began the year splitting time with Jake Rogers, who started for the Tigers in 2024, but Dingler performed well enough to take over the starting role and hold it upon Rogers’ return from the injured list.

Entering play on June 23, Dingler is slashing .273/.305/.426 with a .730 OPS, 105 OPS+, seven home runs, and 31 RBI.

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In his MLB debut in 2024, Dingler slashed .167/.195/.310 with a .505 OPS, 42 OPS+, one home run, and 11 RBI.

That incredible jump earned Dingler a spot on the breakout catchers list in a recent article by Andrea Arcadipane of The Athletic (subscription required).

His 2.0 WAR through 60 games played is the third highest on the team and a massive improvement from his -0.1 WAR in 2024.

Arcadipane perceives Dingler's greatest strength as his ability to translate his existing power rather than possess an abundance of raw power.

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His .468 xSLG entering play on June 23 is significantly better than his .374 xSLG last season, and it also is higher than his .426 slugging percentage.

That means that luck has little to do with Dingler’s performance and that he has quality contact.

However—and unsurprisingly for a second-year player—there are areas for improvement, and Arcadipane points to his plate discipline against breaking pitches in particular.

He’s averaging .337 against fastballs, .286 against offspeed pitches, and .190 against breaking pitches.

Those are all improvements from last season, but it really shows in his slugging percentage on fastballs (.519), offspeed pitches (.714), and breaking pitches (.238).

His 2.7% walk rate is tied for fourth worst in baseball among players with at least 200 plate appearances, and as Arcadipane reports, pitchers are throwing breaking pitches to Dingler 39% of the time, which is more than the league average.

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He tends to chase pitches off the plate, and his 49% whiff rate against sweepers is the second worst in the league.

That all limits Dingler’s ceiling, at least this season, but he has compensated for that with an 8.5 barrel rate compared to 3.7 in 2024 and an ability to elevate pitches.

That’s a lot of promise in a young catcher that is on pace to wildly outperform his MLB debut season.

For more Tigers news, head over to Tigers On SI.