Saturday’s box score implied that Dillon Dingler had taken it on the chin, 0-for-3, in Double-A Erie’s loss, 4-2, at Altoona.
Erie manager Gabe Alvarez said the box score was fibbing.
“He didn’t have anything to show for it,” Alvarez said Sunday morning as the SeaWolves gathered to close out a six-game series against the Curve, a finale that rain ultimately postponed. “But he just missed three balls that flew out to the warning track — three times.
“He’s in a good place.”
Dingler is a persistent case study in what might be going right, and wrong, for the Tigers’ top catching prospect.
Right: a .252 batting average at Erie that doesn’t impress as much as his .828 OPS, as well as heavy ISO (.209) and wRC+ (129), with eight homers in 45 games for the SeaWolves.
He also carries a .367 on-base percentage and 11.9% walk-rate, strong numbers, which are offset only by Dingler’s stubborn soft-spot: strikeouts.
He is whiffing at 29.4%, which is better than last year’s 31.9% pace, but ranks nonetheless as an issue Dingler needs to semi-subdue before he can be considered a steady everyday MLB catcher.
At the same time, consider Dingler’s last 28 days and 15 games with Erie: .320/.414/.560/.974, with three homers. His strikeout rate for those 15 games was still 28%. But it must be noted that Jake Rogers, who probably could have and maybe should have been the Tigers’ All-Star Game choice, is striking out 35% of the time in 2023 and still, because of his power, is considered artillery in manager AJ Hinch’s lineup.
Dingler is 24 and a 6-foot-3, 210-pound, right-handed batter with a feel for swinging at strikes and laying off fringe pitches.
Maybe he’s been a bit too judicious there.
“He’s been working hard on making some adjustments, being more aggressive at the plate,” said Alvarez, explaining why Dingler’s past four weeks of at-bats have been stronger. “A guy with a good eye at the plate, it’s kind of like a double-edged sword.
“Once in a while, you find yourself taking too many pitches early in the count. Now, it seems, he’s going after a few of those.
“But he has a very good eye, he’s very disciplined. So, it’s kind of easy to pick on him in that category (strikeouts) when that skill for seeing pitches is also a good thing.”
Defensively, there is much to like about Dingler, including a 31% caught-stealing ratio that isn’t always helped by pitchers’ delivery times.
“When he’s good, he has next-level receiving and throwing skills,” Alvarez said. ”When he’s right, he’s an All-Star catcher.
“Our pitchers love throwing to him. The thing that people don’t see, and that he should get credit for, is how well he calls a game, and how much studying he does. How much he cares, doing a lot of homework on our opponents. He does it all the right way and is very, very prepared for every game. It’s such a hard thing to quantify.”
It has been said before: There might be no more pivotal prospect in the Tigers’ system than Dingler. Premier organizational catching typically is a club’s out-of-stock item, and low inventory there is one of Detroit’s ongoing issues.
A rising second half for Dingler, with fewer Ks especially being a target, would make a team feel much better about its catching future — and how a second pick in Detroit’s 2020 draft might be factoring, at last, in its big-league roster plans.
Bigbie’s bat’s battering
It continues, this hitting and slamming Double-A pitching, which of course is what got Justice Bigbie a mid-June promotion to Double-A Erie.
Since hooking on with the SeaWolves, Bigbie, a corner outfielder and 24-year-old, right-handed batter, is hitting .380 in 21 games for Erie, with on-base and slugging percentages of .449 and .608. That computes to a 1.057 OPS.
And that tends to make MLB front-offices rather happy, not to mention certain Double-A managers.
“He’s been incredible,” Alvarez said. “I didn’t realize he had so much power the other way (three homers since checking in with Erie).
“He’s a true, line-to-line hitter, and he hasn’t missed a beat up here. He hasn’t stopped (hitting).”
Bigbie has dealt with lower expectations during his two years on the Tigers farm owing to his 19th-round draft status and smaller college (Western Carolina) heritage. It’s a pedigree that tends to make a prospect suspect.
But it can be a mistake. Or, perhaps, do Tigers followers need a reminder that Kerry Carpenter (19th round, Virginia Tech) also was discounted until he whacked his way into regular work at Comerica Park?
“I think they’re very similar in that they’ve got to kick the door down to get there (Detroit),” Alvarez said. “Both put up some loud numbers, which Justice is putting up right now. That’s what Kerry had to do.
“They’re pretty similar in their overall games. They can both handle pitchers from both sides in an advanced way.”
In fact, Bigbie, in 56 games combined at Single-A West Michigan and at Erie, has better numbers against right-handers: .369/.430/.619 compared with his left-handed scores of .298/.385/.421.
Bigbie has an edge, defensively, in that he can fill in at a corner infield spot. Otherwise, he’s a straight-up option for Alvarez in left or right.
“Bigbie has a very good glove, and I would say an average arm,” Alvarez said. “I think he only gets better the more he plays out there (outfield).
“He hasn’t played a whole lot of outfield. But he gets very good jumps, and knows where to go with the baseball as far as keeping double-plays in order. He’s a smart player.”
So, why the deeper draft status two years ago? What did scouts miss — if, in fact, they missed anything?
“I think he’s a different hitter from when he was drafted,” Alvarez said. “He’s made a lot of adjustments with our hitting team (coaches and development gurus). Our hitting department has done a tremendous job with him. And yet the credit goes to Justice.
“He’s been very coachable. He’s bought into the things our hitting department has done with him. He’s a different hitter — hitting for more power.
“I think it’s just a matter of being more efficient with the swing, and being in position to hit the ball in the air.”
It takes all kinds
Relief pitchers have been a steady, special story for the SeaWolves in 2023.
One after another, right-handers, left-handers, all have been keeping games intact for an Erie team that hasn’t always gotten the help anticipated from its starters.
“They’re the reason we won the first half,” Alvarez said of his relief corps. “We’ve got five guys who we feel can close.”
It’s a deep cast headed by two power right-handers: Tyler Mattison and Blake Holub.
“Both have electric stuff,” Alvarez said. “When they’re good, it’s next-level, big-league-gauge stuff.”
Mattison is 6-4, 235, and was a fourth-round pick in 2021 from Bryant University in Smithfield, Rhode, Island.
“He’s got a fastball in the mid-to-high 90s, and a kind of power curveball,” Alvarez said of a pitcher who has pitched in only three games since getting a bump to Double A (four innings, no hits, two walks, five strikeouts.
Holub (15th round, 2021, St. Edward’s University) is another West Michigan graduate promoted the past spring and who in 10 games for the SeaWolves has a 3.77 ERA and 1.256 WHIP, with four walks and 17 strikeouts in 14.1 innings.
“Holub has been working on a split that has been coming along,” Alvarez said. “The thing that makes him real effective is that his ball cuts quite a bit. There’s a little bit of Kenley Jansen in him. Every ball he throws has a bit of natural cut to it.
“And he’s mid-to-high 90s (fastball), same as Mattison.”
Andrew Magno and Adam Wolf are lefties in which Alvarez can entrust a game. So, too, can he plop a ball in the hand of right-handers Angel De Jesus, Austin Bergner, or RJ Petit, and not deal with any undue Double-A anxiety.
“Just the fact we have so many options,” Alvarez said. “Guys who can perform in different roles. Right-handed and left-handed.”
Lynn Henning is a freelance writer and retired Detroit News sports reporter.