00:00Hey Tigers fans, welcome back, we're just getting things rolling here in Lakeland and
00:05there's already a story that doesn't involve a radar gun or a scoreboard, Dylan Dingler
00:09is in the house, and even though that official gold glove award he won last fall hasn't arrived
00:13in the mail yet.
00:14He brought his own version of the hardware with him, Dingler pulled his new Rawlings
00:18catching mitt out of his locker on Wednesday morning, and you couldn't miss it.
00:22There it was.
00:23A gold patch stitched right onto the black leather.
00:26It's not the award itself but it's a pretty loud symbol of the honor he earned.
00:30Now here's the thing, Dingler is old school when it comes to breaking in new gear so that
00:34mitt didn't stay in the locker for long, he was behind the plate catching Casey Mize during
00:38his bullpen session bright and early Wednesday morning, that said, catching bullpens is pretty
00:44much the limit of his on-field workload right now, about two weeks ago, Dingler underwent
00:48arthroscopic surgery to clean up his right elbow, he's currently working through a throwing
00:53program, but here's the good news, the Tigers do not expect this to impact his availability
00:58for opening day, he's been cleared for everything else, hitting, catching, you name it, he actually
01:03went through a similar procedure two years ago and was ready to go for opening day 2024
01:08with AAA Toledo, Skipper A, J, Hinch made it clear they're not rushing things, he said Dingler
01:14will catch bullpens, but they're going to be smart about the volume he's not throwing at
01:19full speed just yet, so, what happened, Dingler said he felt some discomfort while working
01:23out in mid-January, instead of brushing it off, he went straight to the Tigers medical
01:29staff, his mindset, don't let something minor become something major in the middle of the
01:34season, Dingler put it this way, it's only going to cost him a little bit of spring training,
01:40he shouted out Duncan Evans, the team's physical therapist, for getting him right every single
01:45day, he's throwing, he's hitting, and he's working back into the progression, he called
01:50the whole thing a totally minor issue in the grand scheme of baseball, and honestly, he
01:56sounds relieved it wasn't worse, now there is a silver lining here by catching these bullpen
02:01sessions, Dingler is getting valuable early time with some new faces, we're talking Frambois
02:06Valdez, Justin Verlander, Kenley Jansen, in fact, Dingler met Verlander for the first time
02:11shortly after the news dropped Tuesday afternoon, he was doing some rehab work in the training
02:16room, showing up early as he put it, when he saw the signing pop up on Instagram, 10
02:21minutes later, Verlander was right there in the building, that had to be a cool moment,
02:25one last thing before I let you go, Dingler may be waiting on that gold glove, but he didn't
02:30leave Lakeland empty handed this spring, Tarek Skubal, fresh off his 2025 AL Cy Young Award
02:36victory, hooked Dingler up with a watch, you might remember Skubal did the same thing last
02:41spring, for himself and Jake Rogers after his first Cy Young in 2024, this time around,
02:47Rogers got another one, and Dingler was included in the tradition, so here's my question for
02:52you, Tigers fam, we know Dingler is already building chemistry with Verlander and Valdez
02:57during these bullpens, but do you think he opens the season as the primary guy behind the
03:02plate, or does the team ease him in coming off this procedure, let me know what you're
03:06thinking.
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