{"id":894899,"date":"2026-06-26T20:34:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T20:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/894899\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T20:34:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T20:34:13","slug":"guardians-select-cooper-ingle-mlb-trade-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/894899\/","title":{"rendered":"Guardians Select Cooper Ingle – MLB Trade Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Guardians announced that they have selected the contract of catcher\/outfielder Cooper Ingle<\/a><\/strong>. Outfielder Stuart Fairchild<\/a><\/strong> has been designated for assignment to open both an active roster and 40-man roster spot.<\/p>\n

Ingle, 24, was a fourth-round pick in the 2024 draft. Throughout his minor league career, he has shown a great approach from the batter\u2019s box. He has stepped to the plate 1,208 times as a professional. 17.3% of those have resulted in a walk, a massive rate. For context, MLB league average is usually 8 to 9%. His 16.5% strikeout rate is also a strong figure, with MLB average typically in the 22 to 23% range. He only hit 33 home runs in that time but the overall approach has worked for him. He has a combined line of .282\/.408\/.461 and 149 wRC+.<\/p>\n

Despite all that strong offense, there have been questions about how he fits into the plans in Cleveland. His work behind the plate isn\u2019t nearly as well regarded as his work with a bat in his hands. That\u2019s particularly notable for this club. The Guardians clearly put a priority on catcher defense. They have repeatedly signed Austin Hedges<\/a><\/strong> over the years. He is one of the worst big league hitters of the past decade but is considered one of the best defenders with the pads on. He often shared the catching duties with Bo Naylor<\/a><\/strong>, another poor hitter with a strong defensive reputation. Last month, the Guards acquired Patrick Bailey<\/a><\/strong> from the Giants. Bailey is yet another light hitter with a great reputation for his defense.<\/p>\n

After acquiring Bailey, the Guards started playing Ingle in left field in the minors. Ingle is still very new to the position, with just 65 innings over seven starts under his belt. Perhaps the Guards are pleased enough with his initial foray onto the grass that they will call him up to get his bat into the lineup. Despite his defensive questions, Ingle is considered one of the top prospects in the league. Baseball America<\/a> currently lists him 91st overall. MLB Pipeline<\/a> has him at #68.<\/p>\n

The Guardians put both Angel Mart\u00ednez<\/strong><\/a> and Chase DeLauter<\/a><\/strong> on the injured list earlier this month, subtracting two outfielders from their group. Since then, they have been using Fairchild, Steven Kwan<\/a><\/strong>, Petey Halpin<\/a><\/strong>, Daniel Schneemann<\/a><\/strong>, David Fry<\/a><\/strong> and Kahlil Watson<\/a><\/strong> on the grass. No one in that group has a wRC+ above 96 this year. Cleveland has received a collective .229\/.304\/.358 line and 87 wRC+ from the outfield this year. If Ingle can hit like he has in the minors, and play a passable left field, then he can carve out some playing time.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also the designated hitter spot, as Rhys Hoskins<\/a><\/strong> and Kyle Manzardo<\/a><\/strong> have been getting a lot of playing time there while also sharing the first base position. Manzardo is doing well enough but Hoskins is hitting .175\/.313\/.349 this year.<\/p>\n

Ideally, Ingle can help the Guardians get a bit more offensive production without hurting them too much on defense. If he proves to be a really poor defender in left, then perhaps the Guards would give more serious thought to trading him. He already popped up in some trade rumors<\/a> after Bailey came to town. If the left field experiment doesn\u2019t pan out, he could focus on developing behind the plate. In that case, the Guards could look to flip him elsewhere while they roll with their glove-first favorites. In that scenario, any offensive success that Ingle has will be a boost to his value.<\/p>\n

The Guards could also keep him, of course, with Hedges being an impending free agent. But given their aforementioned preferences, there\u2019s a chance the Guards may not consider a Bailey-Ingle pairing to be sufficient from a defensive point of view.<\/p>\n

Fairchild, 30, is a glove-first journeyman outfielder. The Guards signed him to a minor league deal in the offseason. He was added to the roster in late May. He has put up a wonky .158\/.407\/.158 slash line since then, with seven walks and 14 strikeouts in 27 plate appearances. It seems he basically decided to not swing and hope for the best. He only offered at 38.2% of pitches in that time, well below the 47.1% league average and his 49.2% career rate.<\/p>\n

He is out of options and will now head into DFA limbo. For his career, he has a .221\/.309\/.377 line and 88 wRC+. But in over 1500 outfield innings, he has been credited with ten Defensive Runs Saved and nine Outs Above Average. Perhaps there are other clubs looking for a good defender off the bench. If he were to clear waivers, he would have the right to elect free agency since he has at least three years of service time.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Samantha Madar, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Guardians announced that they have selected the contract of catcher\/outfielder Cooper Ingle. Outfielder Stuart Fairchild has been…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":894900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[10],"tags":[362662,62,271739,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-894899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-cooper-ingle","tag-sports","tag-stuart-fairchild","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116818324279583392","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=894899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/894900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=894899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=894899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=894899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}