Cooper Ingle's Triple-A heater could give Guardians clear trade deadline advantage

Although Cooper Ingle’s time with the Cleveland Guardians didn’t go well earlier this season, the future still seems to be incredibly bright for the 24-year-old. 

However, it remains to be seen if that bright future is going to come at Progressive Field due to Ingle’s name being floated in a variety of trade rumors over the past week. 

But those rumors haven’t stopped Ingle from racking, as he mashed yet another Triple-A home run today and is now hitting .412 in 15 games since getting demoted with four home runs and 11 RBI. 

Even if Ingle’s production isn’t coming in the big leagues, it’s a tangible reminder that he doesn’t have anything left to prove in the minors and is as MLB-ready as a minor league trade piece can be. 

That could be enough to help the Guardians win any potential trades at the deadline… should they choose to be active. 

Cooper Ingle is getting hot at the right time

Ingle’s minor league heater is coming on the back of his rough big league cameo. Not only did he go 2-for-21, but he also gave up a critical run against the Rangers when he forgot how many outs there were in the inning and tossed a ball in the stands. 

But one of more telling parts of Ingle’s brief big league cameo was that fact that all of his appearances came in left field or designated hitter despite the fact he came up through the minors as a catcher. 

As The Athletic’s Zack Meisel wrote this morning, the Guardians don’t seem super excited about the idea of Ingle catching in the big leagues, which puts more of a limit on his big league ceiling. 

But just because he’s not the Guardians’ catcher of the future doesn’t mean that another team won’t be willing to roll that dice. And there’s no better time than the present for the Guardians to capitalize on that value by moving Ingle at Monday’s trade deadline. 

After Ingle shuffled between left field and catcher since the start of May, he appeared at catcher in three straight games from Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday before DHing today. Could that be a sign the Guardians are trying to convince other teams that Ingle could be an everyday option being the dish?

But all of that doesn’t take away from the fact that Ingle is mashing at Triple-A while Guardians hitters are falling all over themselves in the batter’s box. 

Normally a team would be falling all over itself to promote a hitter who has slashed .318/.430/.594 in 66 Triple-A games, but the Guardians don’t seem willing to do so right now. 

While that could change after the trade deadline, there’s also a chance that Ingle’s MLB career comes in a different jersey following next Monday’s trade deadline. 

Last week we floated the idea of the Guardians combining Ingle and Angel Genao in a trade for a controllable right-handed bat like Casey Schmitt or Spencer Steer. 

Even if a trade for either of those players isn’t going to happen since Schmitt and Steer both hit the injured list earlier this week, they could still use Ingle as a part of the package to get Miami outfielder Heriberto Hernández, Nationals first base Luis García Jr. or Rockies outfielders Mickey Moniak and Jake McCarthy. 

A trade for Ingle would clearly be scary since there’s always the potential he could break out elsewhere, it seems like it wouldn’t be hard for the Guardians to find a team that values him more than Cleveland does.

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