Guardians new-look offensive approach is clear after Cooper Ingle’s promotion 

On Friday, the Cleveland Guardians continued their youth movement by calling Cooper Ingle up from Triple-A Columbus, making him the eighth player to make their MLB debut for Cleveland this season. 

But it also could result in the Guardians finally ditching the platoon advantage that’s arguably hindered them this year. 

While Ingle’s debut is another great sign in a year that’s been defined by plenty of aggressiveness from Cleveland’s front office, it also made Cleveland’s lineup even more lefty heavy, since Ingle (a left-handed hitter) was added to the roster at the expense of Stuart Fairchild, a right-handed batter. 

Even though the Guardians have had a platoon advantage in nearly 80% of their at-bats this season, they entered the weekend hitting just .228 as a team, which is the third-lowest mark in baseball.

That platoon advantage shouldn’t go away since the Guardians are projected to face off against just three lefty starters from now until the All-Star Break, but adding Ingle does tweak that formula.

“We need to beat the starter,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said on Friday when asked about Clevleand’s left-handed heavy lineup. “We know that teams can match up really well with us in the bullpen and we know we're very left-handed, but if we're going to be very left-handed, let's go all in on it and it's just where we are right now.” 

Cooper Ingle’s promotion changed the makeup of the Guardians’ lineup 

Even though Ingle’s versatility could be hampered a bit since Vogt said that he’s mostly going to be seeing time at designated hitter and outfield as opposed to catcher, he still adds some obvious thump to a Guardians lineup that desperately needs it. 

Now, Ingle obviously won’t be able to save the lineup himself. But adding him in place of Fairchild (who struck out 14 times in 19 at-bats) is an obvious upgrade. 

It would be one thing for the Guardians to lean on their platoon advantage if it worked, but they produced the worst batting average in baseball last year despite having the sport’s biggest platoon advantage, and their offense hasn’t been much better this year. 

That said, their lineup is a bit more exciting given the presence of Ingle, Kahlil Watson and Travis Bazzana. 

Watson continued his hot streak with an early RBI double against the Mariners on Friday, while Ingle played in all three games over the weekend and picked up his first big league hit on Saturday.

Even though we already know the Guardians’ lineup is going to be a work-in-progress for the better part of the next month thanks to José Ramírez and Angel Martínez’s injuries, adding Ingle at least ensures that it’ll be interesting (and left-handed heavy).

While the Guardians' offense looked a bit listless in Friday's series opener, they did just enough to win the final two games of the series. Ingle and the youth movement played a huge part in that.

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