2024 Cleveland Guardians Prospect Scouting Report: #30 C Cooper Ingle

Ingle has a strong defensive profile and good strike zone awareness as a hitter

Cooper Ingle Bio

• Age (2024 season): 22

• Acquired: 2024 Draft (Round 4)

• 2023 Level: College/High-A

• Height: 5’10

• Weight: 190

• Bats: Left

• Throws: Right

Cooper Ingle Stats

• PA: 69

• AVG/OBP/SLG: .288/.464/.385

• 2B: 5

• HR: 0

• SB: 2/3

• K%/BB%: 11.6%/24.6%

Cooper Ingle 2024 Scouting Grades

• Hit: 45

• Power: 30

• Speed: 45

• Defense: 50

• Arm: 55

• Overall: 40

• Risk: Moderate

• ETA: 2026

Build & Background

Solid, standard size for a catcher. Strong lower half and medium framed upper half. Probably not much remaining projection left in frame to continue defensively behind the plate. Ingle was not picked out of high school, but was selected by Cleveland in the fourth round of the 2024 draft from Clemson. Was the top rated high school catcher in North Carolina and lettered four years in school in baseball. Played on the Cape Cod League in the summer of 2023.

What Ingle Does Well

Offensively, strike zone awareness, pitch recognition and patience are what drives Ingle’s profile. That’s a fancy way of saying he knows how to draw a walk. Ingle has shown so far he won’t chase out of the zone much and has pretty solid barrel control in terms of making contact. Defensively, Ingle is a very fundamentally sound catcher, especially with his arm. He’s capable of running sub-2.00 pop times to second base (2.0 is about the standard for an average throw down to second base to catch a runner). He’ll occasionally be somewhat slower, but is often at or under the 2.0 mark with quick movements and a really good throwing motion. He’s a solid receiver that shows the ability to grow into that aspect of his game more. Additionally, Ingle has spent time in the outfield in the past and that may be an option for him in pro ball to help him as he moves up the later. He’s not a bad runner for a catcher, though he’s not quite fast enough to be a threat on the bases.

https://x.com/JL_Baseball/status/1690143975012012034?s=20

https://x.com/ChathamAnglers/status/1554635756127371264?s=20

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https://x.com/FarmToFame_/status/1501897886568747017?s=20

Where Ingle Needs to Improve

The overall profile for Ingle is that of a backup catcher, so he’ll need to fine tune his defensive strengths. He has good throwing mechanics and a good arm, but needs to find more consistency in terms of his motion to stay under the 2.00 mark more often. If Ingle is to be more than a backup catcher, he’ll need to find a way to impact the baseball more. He doesn’t run particularly high exit velocities and hit the ball on the ground a ton in his short pro debut. He walks and makes a fair amount of contact, but the contact quality isn’t enough to give his hit tool more than a fringe grade at best. Ingle needs to improve as a blocker as well. With the robo strike zone coming soon, framing will be less of a concern and he’ll want to shore up his blocking skills.

Key Stats

A .401 OBP in the Cape Cod League in 2022 (30 walks, 29 strikeouts) shows he has the ability to understand the strike zone as both a hitter and catcher. 

In his 69 plate appearances as a pro in 2023, Ingle ran a 61.4% ground ball rate he’ll need to improve on to help increase any offensive punch.

Intangibles

Ingle was Clemson’s defensive MVP in 2023 and though he was thought of as a good defensive catcher in college, he still took a spot in right field 17 times, showing a willingness to be versatile and do what’s best for the team despite his own standing.

Future

There are some things for Ingle to shore up defensively, but there’s a lot to like here from the standpoint of a back up, glove first catcher. His contact quality will need to improve to ascend above that type of profile, but he should be ready to handle everyday catching duties in Double-A in 2024 and could be the team’s top minor league backstop by 2025, depending on where Ralphy Velazquez asserts himself by then, at least from a defensive standpoint.

Role 

40 - Versatile backup catcher with solid plate skills