There's one catcher in baseball that stands above the rest right now: Seattle Mariners' superstar Cal Raleigh.
Raleigh won the Platinum Glove last season as the top defender in all of baseball, and he's now in contention for the AL MVP after a 60-homer season for Seattle.
That makes what Detroit Tigers catcher Dillon Dingler did this season extra cool.
Dingler was one of two catchers in baseball to not allow a single passed ball the whole season. Raleigh was the other, according to Danny Vietti of CBS Sports.
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To be clear: This is the official passed ball statistic. Wild pitches happened for these guys, like they do for every catcher. But as far as the catcher being at fault on an official passed ball, that never happened for Raleigh or Dingler.
It's been a breakout season for Dingler. The former Ohio State outfielder has proven he belongs in the big leagues as a catcher, and his bat has had some strong moments, too.
The Tigers will need it to continue.
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They had a brutal late-season collapse, but they just snuck into the playoffs. They'll face the Cleveland Guardians in a best-of-three Wild Card series, and with Tigers ace Tarik Skubal on the mound for Game 1, it'll feel like they've got a real chance.
And with Dingler behind the plate, everything seems a bit simpler. You know he's going to get the job done in his catcher's gear.
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