DETROIT — There was a time before the 2025 season when Dillon Dingler wasn’t sure he was going to make the team out of spring training.

As a rookie in 2024, he had looked overwhelmed at the plate. He was a poised and skilled defender, but he was also still learning how to command and game plan at the major-league level. That spring, Tigers manager A.J. Hinch had to reassure Dingler that he was very much in the club’s plans.

It’s a funny story to think back on now. Dingler’s ascension started slowly. He played well last season but was not among the six Tigers who represented the team in the All-Star Game.

Late last season, though, when so many of his teammates hit brutal slides, Dingler hit .273 in August and September. In the offseason, a year’s worth of hard work was rewarded when Dingler won an American League Gold Glove Award in his first full MLB season.

Now Dingler is 27, still young in terms of major-league experience. He has quickly but suddenly emerged as a force on a whole other level. He went 4-for-5 Sunday at Fenway Park, falling only a triple shy of hitting for the cycle. Dingler’s performance to start a new season has brought truth into focus. Over the last year, Dingler has not just been good. He has been among the very best catchers in the sport.

Here are five numbers that tell the story of his rise.

5.3: Dingler’s fWAR since the start of 2025

Dingler entered Monday leading all MLB catchers with 1.2 fWAR this season. But this is no small sample. His 5.3 fWAR since the start of last year ranks second among all catchers, trailing only Cal Raleigh’s otherworldly 8.8. Since the start of 2025, the hierarchy of catchers appears clear. There is Raleigh, who hit a Ruthian 60 home runs last season. And then there is Dingler, a player whose bat just keeps getting better while his defense remains elite. Toronto’s Alejandro Kirk ranks third over this time frame with 4.8 fWAR.

“Clearly, the defensive side was his calling card coming up,” Hinch said. “He had contributed very well through the minor leagues on the offensive side. But to be able to maintain that as the responsibilities grow in the big leagues, he’s now handling a ton of successful pitchers, he’s leaned on to catch the majority of games, it’s a physically demanding, mentally demanding position. … A lot of times, people look at that position and say, ‘Anything you get behind the plate offensively is a plus.’ We’re not only getting a plus, we’re getting more than that.”

16.4: Dingler’s barrels per plate appearance in 2026

What Dingler is doing with the bat this season suggests he has not yet hit his ceiling.

MLB defines a “barrel” as a batted-ball event “whose comparable hit types (in terms of exit velocity and launch angle) have led to a minimum .500 batting average and 1.500 slugging percentage” since the Statcast era started in 2015. Basically, a barrel means a ball hit incredibly well. Dingler last season had 469 plate appearances. He recorded 30 barrels. In 2026, Dingler has 78 plate appearances, and he already has 12 barrels. He entered Monday with a 16.4 percent barrel rate, the best of any MLB hitter this season. That’s right — better than Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani, Mike Trout, you name it. Dingler has started this season stinging the ball at a rate which has turned his entire Statcast page red and morphed him into a different type of offensive threat.

Dingler has hit cleanup in the Tigers’ order five times this season.

“It’s kind of knowing what you’re going to get a little bit,” Dingler said of his improvements. “Being able to categorize pitchers. Our hitting staff does a great job of putting information in front of us and getting us as much information as possible. It’s just being able to know what the at-bat is going to look like, essentially.”

85: Dingler’s ABS challenge success rate

This year, the implementation of the ABS challenge system has added a new wrinkle that’s allowing Dingler to display his savvy. Dingler is 11-for-13 on challenging pitches while catching this season, one of the best success rates in the league. Dingler is also 1-for-1 on challenges as a batter, overturning a strikeout and helping the Tigers extend the fifth inning, and ultimately scoring a run in an April 4 victory against the Cardinals.

Statcast indicates Dingler has had far more success with the challenge system than expected, given the types of pitches he’s seen, suggesting he knows the ABS zone and when to deploy challenges quite well. If anything, Dingler could almost be using the challenge system more. Although he has overturned three strikeouts and saved the Tigers in several big spots, he’s using challenges at a rate 0.5 percent the norm on challengeable calls.

“He’s great at that,” Tigers pitcher Keider Montero said after a game in which Dingler went 4-for-4 on challenges. “There were a couple pitches that were just, ‘Ehh, yes or no,’ but he called it, and he won it. I’m grateful for having him.”

1: Passed balls since the start of 2025

When Dingler and Raleigh met in last season’s ALDS, it marked a rather astonishing feat. Only five catchers in history have ever played 1,000 innings in a season without allowing a passed ball. Two did it last year. One was Raleigh. The other was Dingler. Among his many positive traits, Dingler’s blocking ability might be his best. Dingler is strong and athletic behind the plate, hardly letting anything by him and seldom making unforced mistakes.

Although Raleigh has yet to allow a passed ball in 2026, Dingler dropped a pitch from Enmanuel De Jesus and was charged with a passed ball in Detroit’s March 30 game against the Diamondbacks.

1.88: Dingler’s pop time this season

Pop time measures the time elapsed from the moment a pitch hits the catcher’s glove to the moment the ball reaches the fielder at second base on a throwdown. For a catcher as athletic as Dingler, there was almost an oddity in his game last season. His average pop time was 1.94 seconds, ranking 33rd in the league. It was good, not great. So far this season? Dingler has lowered his average pop time to 1.88 seconds on nine attempts. He has a pop time that ranks in the league’s top five.

It’s another reminder that, for as good as Dingler is, he might still be getting better.

“His preparation is his key,” Hinch said. “He’s very, very consistent in how he prepares for a game, both with the bat and with the glove, and that might be the single biggest thing I’m most impressed by.”