The Detroit Tigers may have traded away the franchise's most valuable player, back-to-back American League Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal, but there may still be a sleeper MVP candidate left on their roster.
Catcher Dillon Dingler has evolved into a star and a franchise cornerstone over the first 115 games of this season (of which Dingler has played 106). He entered Thursday, Aug. 6, with a 5.4 fWAR (per FanGraphs), which ranked third in baseball (behind only Chicago Cubs outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong at 7.8 and Houston Astros DH Yordan Alvarez at 5.7). And then, of course, he went 3-for-6 with a home run and three RBIs as the Tigers thumped the Seattle Mariners, 11-0. It was just another example of how the third-year catcher has become
not only an indispensable part of the Tigers' core, but also one of the most valuable players in baseball.
And despite Dingler's long odds to win the 2026 AL MVP (80-to-1 according to BetMGM, fifth among AL players), he should be considered among the two or three serious candidates to take home the award.
Let's start with the raw numbers.
Dillon Dingler's exceptional 2026 stats
Dingler's big game Thursday left him slashing .278/.341/.536 over 448 plate appearances, good for a 141 wRC+ – shorthand for his offensive production registering 41% above league average. That's the seventh-highest mark among all qualified AL hitters (and by far the highest mark among qualified catchers, with Atlanta's Drake Baldwin coming in second at a 128 wRC+).
Much of that production comes from Dingler's power, which the catcher showed in spurts in 2025 but has thoroughly unlocked in 2026. He leads all qualified Tigers this season in home runs (26), extra-base hits (50), slugging percentage (.536) and isolated power (.254). He has more than doubled his home-run rate from 2025 (2.8%) to 2026 (5.7%) while turning into a bona-fide MLB slugger.
And if slugging was the only exceptional part of Dingler's game, he would still be an All-Star level player. But Dingler's defense elevates him to an MVP level.
Dingler – who won a Gold Glove as the AL's top-fielding catcher last season – entered Thursday in the 97th percentile among all catchers in framing and in the 96th percentile in blocking, per Statcast. That makes Dingler the most valuable defensive catcher in baseball (with a Fielding Run Value of 10) among all catchers with at least 500 defensive innings played – and Dingler has played an AL-leading 699 innings behind the plate.
Put simply, Dingler has easily been the best-hitting catcher in baseball as well as arguably the best-fielding catcher in baseball. And considering the importance of strong catching defense, a combination like that usually merits serious MVP consideration.
But how does Dingler stack up against the competition?
Yordan Alvarez currently the favorite
Per BetMGM, Alvarez has minus-1000 odds to win the AL MVP. That makes Alvarez not just the favorite, but an overwhelming favorite, with Tampa Bay's Junior Caminero next up at plus-650. And considering how well Alvarez has been hitting this season, that distinction makes plenty of sense.
Alvarez enters Friday slashing .329/.442/.640 with 35 home runs, 85 RBIs and a monstrous 194 wRC+ – 94% above league average. The average, homers and RBIs all lead the AL, giving him a shot at becoming the first Triple Crown winner in either league since Miguel Cabrera with the Tigers in 2012. That seems MVP-worthy on its face.
But offense is the extent of the argument for Alvarez.
As a near full-time designated hitter, the lefty slugger offers essentially nothing on defense or the basepaths for the Astros. He has appeared on defense in only 18 games this season (all in left field) and has produced negative defensive value (-2 FRV). Per Statcast, he's the third-worst baserunner in baseball (-4 baserunning runs). An average-running Dingler, meanwhile, has actually produced above-average value on the basepaths (59th percentile in baserunning run value, per Statcast).
If he keeps up his production, Alvarez could win the AL MVP on Triple Crown legacy alone, a narrative Cabrera faced when winning his MVP over analytics darling Mike Trout in 2012. But only one full-time DH has won an MVP award – Shohei Ohtani for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2024, marking his third of four MVP awards. And in a season where Ohtani didn't pitch, it took an unprecedented 55 homer, 59 steal season for Ohtani to get his hardware.
So if voters hesitate to hand another DH an MVP, it could make room for Dingler to take the title. But as great as Alvarez has been, he isn't Dingler's only competition for the MVP crown.
Others in the race
Kansas City shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. is probably the AL's best all-around player, and with 4.9 fWAR, he's making another strong MVP case in 2026. The two things holding him back are a relatively down season at the plate (121 wRC+, 20 points behind Dingler) and a late-July back injury that knocked him out for a couple of weeks – and even with that, he still has better MVP odds than Dingler (66-to-1).
Caminero (+650) and New York Yankees star Ben Rice (25-to-1) are the other two players with better MVP odds than Dingler, but the two sluggers have flawed résumés. Both are among MLB's worst fielders at their respective positions, with the third baseman Caminero in the 2nd-percentile among all MLB fielders (-9 FRV) and the first baseman Rice in the 23rd percentile (-3 FRV). Dingler, meanwhile, is in the 97th percentile of all fielders at the most valuable defensive position, and as a result has a much higher fWAR (5.4) than either Caminero (4.1) or Rice (3.1).
The most interesting MVP competitor for Dingler may be on his own team. As of Thursday, rookie Kevin McGonigle is actually second in the AL in bWAR (5.2, per Baseball Reference), behind only Alvarez (5.5), with both players significantly above Dingler (4.5). And while McGonigle is having an excellent debut season and is the favorite to win the AL Rookie of the year (at minus-400 per BetMGM), the difference in bWAR between McGonigle and Dingler could be explained by Baseball Reference's notorious undervaluing of catching defense. And if there's anything you should take from Dingler's season, it's that he's really, really good at defense.
But perhaps the biggest impediment to Dingler becoming the first Tigers player to win MVP since 2013 is the Tigers themselves. The last player on a non-playoff team to win MVP was Ohtani in 2023 playing for the 73-89 Los Angeles Angels, and that was in a season where Ohtani hit 44 home runs as a designated hitter and went 10-5 over 132 innings as a pitcher. Before that, it was Ohtani (again) for the 77-85 Angels in 2021 and Bryce Harper for an 82-80 Philadelphia Phillies team in the same season.
But even if the Tigers can't overcome their long playoff odds, don't be surprised if Dingler comes away with a surprise MVP.
Then again, really, it shouldn't be much of a surprise with the kind of season that Dingler is putting up.
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You can reach Christian at cromo@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Dillon Dingler really is sleeper AL MVP candidate. Here's why
