Guardians GM Reveals Why Team Hasn’t Called Up Top Prospect

Cleveland Guardians catcher Bo Naylor has been, statistically, one of the worst regulars in MLB after a little over a month of play. He is sporting an abysmal .130 batting average with a 9 wRC+, or 91 percent worse than the league average hitter.

Meanwhile, catching prospect Cooper Ingle is tearing up Triple-A, hitting .351 with four home runs and a 236 wRC+. He is a top-ten organizational prospect who is already dominating the highest level of minor league baseball.

So, why isn’t Ingle up and helping the Guardians already? Well, it’s a complex question. We will let Guardians’ assistant general manager James Harris answer it.

“Cooper has the bat, but he has to be better defensively. He’s been working, and it has been better than it has been in the past,” Harris told Paul Hoynes of Cleveland.com.

There you have it. The Guardians value defense behind the plate, and they don’t feel Ingle is a finished product in that part of the game, at least not yet. He is probably ready with the bat, where he could potentially contribute much more than Naylor at this point. They feel he still has a lot of work to do as a defender, though, and it’s fair.

The Guardians certainly won’t expose a prospect they don’t think is ready, especially at such an important position. That’s why Ingle is expected to stay a little longer at Columbus. He is making strides, though.

“It starts with doing your homework. Every pitcher at Triple-A has a development plan. He has to be tied into that development plan as well as his own development plan, as well as getting on base and helping us score runs,” Harris said.

It hasn’t been all bad with Naylor. His .294 xwOBA might not be very high, but it is much higher than his .190 wOBA. This gap suggests he has been a bit unlucky. In other words, he has been bad, but maybe not this bad. Maybe the Guardians are looking for reasons to buy him more time, or perhaps they truly believe Ingle could use some more reps in the minors before being called up.

The fact remains that Ingle, who was recently activated from the injured list at Columbus, probably won’t be in Cleveland soon.