Dillon Dingler’s star is rising for Tigers

Kevin McGonigle deserves all of the praise coming his way. But it obscures an important truth for the Tigers: their best hitter so far has been Dillon Dingler.

In fact, given his Gold Glove presence behind the plate, Dingler has been arguably the Tigers' best player. The 27-year-old is poised to announce himself as one of the top catchers in baseball in his second full season in the majors.

With star lefty Garrett Crochet on the mound for the Red Sox on Sunday, Dingler was in the cleanup spot for Detroit. In the first, he doubled off the wall on a two-strike cutter down in the zone to drive in the Tigers' first run of the game. He singled on a two-strike fastball up in the zone in the fourth, then locked in on a center-cut, 3-1 heater in the fifth and blasted it over the wall in center for a three-run bomb that gave the Tigers a 5-1 lead.

And just for good measure in the ninth, Dingler laced a hanging splitter from righty reliever Jack Anderson into left field for his fourth hit of the day. And he did all that while guiding Framber Valdez through seven strong innings as the Tigers won for the eighth time in their last nine games.

Dingler's first duty is to the pitchers he's catching, not those he's facing. He was nevertheless one of the Tigers' steadiest bats last season, posting a .752 OPS. Now he's one of their most dangerous bats. He leads the team in homers (5) and RBI (18) and is tied for the team lead with McGonigle in extra-base hits (9). He has the sixth highest slugging percentage in the majors. He ranks first among catchers with a .983 OPS.