Guardians Still Have Big Plans for This Top Prospect

The Cleveland Guardians were desperate for offense in the middle of June after losing their top three players to the injured list, all in a span of an hour.

At that point, it made all the sense in the world to call up one of the team’s highly touted prospects who was swinging a scorching hot bat at Triple-A.

On June 26, Cleveland promoted Cooper Ingle for his MLB debut.

What was the worst that could happen? There was no way that a hitter with an OPS over 1.000 could struggle that much in his first taste of big-league action, right?

Well, Ingle’s first MLB stint was full of adversity, both at the plate and in the field.

Looking at the offensive numbers first, Ingle looked outmatched in the batter’s box. He only had two hits in 21 at-bats (.095 AVG) and struck out 12 times for a strikeout rate of 50 percent.

Then, the field brought its own challenges. After Ingle spent his entire Minor League career behind the plate, the Guardians asked him to play left field at the big-league level. He looked uncomfortable in the outfield at best, which all came to a head when he threw a ball into the stands, thinking it was the third out when it was only the second.

A big-leaguer must know the number of outs there are, but it’s also fair to say that Ingle had a lot going through his mind playing a position that was new to him. 

Despite all of the early struggles for Ingle, he’s still the team’s No. 4 overall prospect in the organization, and the front office and coaching staff have big plans for him as part of Cleveland’s future.

Chris Antonetti said late last week that the biggest takeaway from Ingle’s 2026 season was just how much he learned from his multi-week stint with the MLB team. That experience alone can set him up for 2027.

"He learned a lot about what's needed to be a really good major league player," the executive said.

"And we are really excited about his opportunity to come in next year, compete for a spot in the team and contribute to helping us win games next year."

Ingle’s potential fit on Cleveland’s roster next season is still the big question. Patrick Bailey will likely be the Guardians' everyday catcher. Will pending free agent Austin Hedges be in the mix, too?

The outfield experiment didn't go well for Ingle, and it would be shocking to see the Guardians go back to that.

Still, Antonetti made it clear that the expectation for Ingle is that he will come into training camp competing for a spot on the big-league roster. There’s still a lot of potential in the 24-year-old’s bat. Any player with a .297/.424/.528 slash line with 20 home runs at Triple-A deserves another look at MLB.

The best-case scenario for Ingle and the Guardians is that he hits in the middle of the lineup and becomes a true threat at some point in 2027.