Dillon Dingler Tries to Make History
The Ohio State Buckeyes have a proud athletic tradition, but junior catcher Dillon Dingler is poised to join an elite group. Only two former Buckeyes have ever been picked in the first round of the Major League Baseball First Year Player Draft: Nick Swisher (selected 16th overall by the Oakland Athletics in 2002) and Alex Wimmers (picked 21st overall by the Minnesota Twins in 2010).
Tonight, Dingler could become the third.
Dingler is a Canton, Ohio native and played his high school ball for the Massillon-Jackson Polar Bears, where he was a state champion in baseball and basketball, and he was the Stark County Football Player of the year at wide receiver and safety.
His Buckeye baseball career took a couple of unexpected turns during his freshman and sophomore seasons. Despite being an All-Ohio catcher in high school, head coach Greg Beals asked Dingler to play some center field. He started 29 of his 53 games as a freshman manning the outfield and still earned All-Big Ten Freshman team recognition.
Dingler fought through a broken hamate bone as a sophomore last year, but he took great pride in his captaincy and still managed to play 44 games.
He was named second team All-Big Ten and was placed on the Big Ten All-Tournament Team after leading the Buckeyes to their 10th Big Ten title in program history. His RBI-single late in an opening round game against Michigan helped spark the 7th seeded Bucks to a championship - the lowest seed to ever win the tournament.
The 2020 season was cut short because of the CoVID-19 pandemic, but Dingler had gotten off to a hot start. After totaling seven homers and 36 RBI during his first two seasons combined, Dingler hit .340 with five bombs, 14 RBI and 12 runs scored in just 13 games this spring. That production was good enough to earn Third Team All-American honors after he was named the Big Ten Pre-season Player of the Year by Baseball America.
In addition to Dingler, Buckeye left-hander Seth Lonsway has a chance to be taken early in this year's draft. Lonsway pitched 21 games in his Buckeye career, posting a record of 9-6 over 110.1 innings with 168 strikeouts. Lonsway was drafted by the Cincinnati Reds out of high school in the 19th round of the 2017 draft.
The 2020 First Year Player Draft has been shortened from 40 rounds to just five due to circumstances around the pandemic. The Minor League Baseball season has not yet officially been canceled, although speculation around that his lingered for weeks.
The first round of the MLB Draft begins tonight at 7 o'clock on ESPN and MLB Network. The remaining four rounds will take place Thursday beginning at 5 PM Eastern on ESPN2.
Stay tuned to BuckeyesNow and all of our social media outlets (@BuckeyesNowSI) on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for continued coverage!