Dillon

Dingler

Dingler’s hot month of June continued Monday. He doubled and scored in the first inning, had a sacrifice fly in the second inning and scored another run in the fourth inning. Dingler is 33-for-100 (.330) with eight home runs, 25 RBI and 21 runs scored in 25 games in June. He’s hitting .262 with an .854 OPS and 59 RBI on the season.

No surprise here with a quick early-afternoon turnaround after Dingler handled the catching duties during Friday night’s series opener. The 27-year-old backstop somehow wasn’t a finalist for the American League in All-Star balloting, but he deserves to be there on the strength of a 19-homer breakthrough campaign. It’ll be Jake Rogers behind the plate on Saturday afternoon at Comerica Park.

Dingler finally got the Tigers on the board with his one-out solo shot off of Enyel De Los Santos in the ninth inning, pulling his club to within a run at 2-1. That would be as close as they would get. Dingler is having an outstanding season at the dish, slashing .268/.336/.543 with a team-leading 19 home runs and 57 RBI.

Dingler’s strong month at the plate continued with three hits against the Yankees on Tuesday. The 27-year-old catcher was hitting just .226 with 11 home runs at the end of May. So far in June, Dingler is 30-for-78 (.385) with seven home runs and 22 RBI. He’s easily been one of the best catchers in fantasy this year.

Dingler’s solo blast came off Grant Taylor in the eighth, cutting Chicago’s lead to 3-2. The breakout catcher then tied the game in the bottom of the ninth with an RBI single off Seranthony Domínguez. Dingler has been fantastic for fantasy this year with 18 homers and the seventh-most plate appearances among primary backstops. He easily leads the position in fWAR too.

Dingler got the Tigers on the board in the fifth inning with an RBI single that plated Zach McKinstry. He then added an insurance run with a 430-foot (105.8-mph EV) solo shot off of Trevor Richards in the eighth inning. Dingler has been a monster at the plate this season, slashing .267/.337/.537 with 17 long balls and 53 RBI.

The three-hit attack raises Dingler’s season average to .254. Dingler remains top-nine in expected wOBA on the season at .403, and his expected batting average of .294 is still being roundly underperformed. He’s been a quiet success story at catcher this year -- good enough to DH on some of his days off, like today -- and remains an easy starter in fantasy leagues.

It’s still kind of hard to see Dingler ending the season in the running for AL MVP honors, but he’s very much on the short list through 57 games. All four of his balls in play tonight were hard hit, and he’s batting .248//329/. 528 with 16 homers and 48 RBI while also performing as one of the league’s top defensive catchers to date. He’s tied for 11th in the majors in homes and fifth in RBI.

Three more hard-hit balls for Dingler today, including a 361-foot homer off Nick Martinez. It was Dingler’s 14th homer, tying him with Shea Langeliers for second among catchers. Hunter Goodman has 15. Dingler is also second with 43 RBI, three behind Liam Hicks.

Dingler served as Detroit’s primary catalyst during Monday’s wild slugfest at Tropicana Field where the Tigers launched five homers and barely managed to escape with a win. The 27-year-old backstop took Tampa Bay starter Griffin Jax deep in the third inning before parking one against reliever Trevor Martin two innings later. It was his first multi-homer performance of the season. He’s homered four times in his last seven games and has already matched last year’s career-high 13 homers in just 54 games after needing 126 to reach that total a season ago.