The Cleveland Guardians have plenty to be excited about at the major league level right now, but what is happening in Columbus deserves just as much attention. Catching prospect Cooper Ingle is putting together one of the more impressive offensive seasons in the entire minor league system, and Sunday was just the latest reminder of what he is capable of.
Guardians Prospective highlighted the moment and the numbers behind it.
“Cleveland Guardians 24-year-old prospect Cooper Ingle ties the game for Columbus on an opposite field blast at 103.0 mph off the bat for his 7th HR of the season. 2025: 10 HR / 120 games. 2026: 7 HR / 25 games. Ingle is now hitting .347 on the year with a 1.201 OPS,” Guardians Prospective wrote.
Cleveland #Guardians 24yr old (C) prospect Cooper Ingle ties the game for Columbus on an opposite field blast 103.0 mph off the bat for his 7th HR of the season.
2025 – 10 HR / 120 games
2026 – 7 HR / 25 gamesIngle is now hitting .347 on the year with a 1.201 OPS.… pic.twitter.com/HFYCNjow1n
— Guardians Prospective (@CleGuardPro) May 17, 2026
The combination of raw power, plate discipline and the ability to drive the ball to all parts of the field is exactly what makes Ingle one of the more intriguing names in this system right now.
He hit 10 home runs across 120 games last season. He already has seven through just 25 games this year. If he stays healthy and maintains anything close to that rate, he will comfortably surpass his previous career high before the midpoint of the season.
Across four minor league seasons in the Cleveland system, Ingle owns a .286 batting average, a .418 on-base percentage and a .461 slugging percentage for a combined .879 OPS across 880 at-bats. His two seasons at the Triple-A level are particularly noteworthy, as he has hit .273 with a .451 on-base percentage and a .494 slugging percentage in 154 at-bats at Columbus, which is the level directly below the big leagues.
Ingle was drafted by Cleveland in the fourth round of the 2023 MLB Draft out of Clemson University, where he spent three seasons developing into one of the more polished offensive catchers in college baseball.
Patrick Bailey was acquired to handle the catching duties at the major league level, and Austin Hedges serves as the veteran backup. But if Ingle continues to hit the way he is hitting at Triple-A Columbus, the organization is going to face some very interesting decisions about his future before this season is over.
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