Tigers Breakout Slugging Catcher Deserves All-Star Consideration

The Detroit Tigers are going to be well-represented at the 2025 MLB All-Star Game this year, given how well they are performing on the field.

Currently, the owners of the best record in baseball at 41-22, they have quickly turned into legitimate World Series contenders.

Things change rapidly in baseball. At this time last year, the Tigers were preparing to be sellers at the trade deadline. Making the postseason was yet a pipe dream, and there were even some whispers about whether or not Detroit would entertain trading their ace, Tarik Skubal.

He was held onto and keyed their remarkable second-half turnaround, unanimously winning the American League Cy Young Award.

Skubal has remained dominant in 2025, but he is no longer a one-man show on the pitching staff and is receiving incredible contributions from the lineup to take the pressure off of him and the other pitchers.

Scoring runs was a struggle for the Tigers in 2024, as they relied almost exclusively on elite pitching to carry them. That isn’t the case this year, averaging 5.0 runs per game, which is fifth best in the MLB.

Several players have contributed to the prolific offense, but one under-the-radar player who deserves some more attention is catcher Dillon Dingler.

Dillon Dingler Should Represent Tigers in MLB All-Star Game

Coming into the year, he was expected to play sparingly as the backup to Jake Rogers. A second-round pick in the 2020 MLB Draft, he struggled mightily as a rookie in 2024 and looked like he needed some more time to figure things out.

One offseason has done the trick, with Dingler already producing as one of the best catchers in the game, taking advantage of an injury to Rogers, who has graciously accepted a backup role.

Amongst AL catchers, Cal Raleigh is lapping the field in fWAR with 3.8. In second place, to the surprise of everyone, is Dingler with a 1.9.

He is getting the job done in every facet of the game, providing elite defense, which was Rogers’ calling card, with his +6 Fielding Run Value on Baseball Savant being in the 96th percentile.

Dingler has a +5 Batting Run Value, getting the job done at the plate with a .296/.328/.467 slash line and an OPS+ of 124. He has hit six home runs with nine doubles and one triple, knocking in 26 runs.

He has been a revelation behind the plate for Detroit, cementing his status as one of the team’s building blocks moving forward and deserving of All-Star consideration, along with first baseman Spencer Torkelson and several other teammates.

His development could make someone such as Thayron Liranzo, one of the team’s top prospects, expendable as the front office ponders moves to make to improve their odds of winning the World Series.