Guardians of the Future Prospect Weekly: Ingle's Patient Week at Columbus, Campbell Keeps Rolling at Triple-A
By Michael Morgan ·
Guardians of the Future Prospect Weekly covers the last 7 days of action for the Guardians farm system.
Ingle's Bat Does the Talking Late in Columbus
Cooper Ingle (AAA, C, Rank: 10) went 7-for-22 last week with three doubles, a walk, and just four strikeouts across 22 plate appearances, his cleanest contact week of the second half at Columbus. The line was a natural extension of a 30-day stretch that has him walking in 16.7 percent of plate appearances while keeping the strikeout rate at 24.0 percent, markedly above where the strikeout number sat earlier in the year. Over his last 21 games, he has hit two home runs and collected seven doubles, numbers that fit a catcher the scouting profile describes as a bat-first, high-OBP backstop with developing pull-side power. He is a 55 hit tool with a 45 power grade, and the contact and walk numbers this season match those grades: a .297/.424/.528 line at Triple-A across 104 games, 20 home runs, and a walk rate of 18.2 percent at Columbus. That is not a fringe player. That is a catcher putting up genuine offensive numbers at the highest level of the minors.
The complication for Ingle is the seven-game MLB cup of coffee he received this season, where a 50.0 percent strikeout rate in 24 plate appearances made for an ugly cameo. The contact rate at Columbus sits at 77.6 percent on the year, but that number dipped to 74.1 percent over his last 30 days, suggesting the advanced breaking stuff Cleveland pitchers face every night does narrow the window even at Triple-A. The arm is fringe-average and the athleticism is a 45, which means the case for an everyday role runs almost entirely through the bat sustaining this production against MLB sequencing. The profile is real. A 24-year-old catcher with an 18.2 percent walk rate and 20 home runs at Triple-A does not grow on trees, and the patient approach he showed last week is the version of Ingle that makes the projection work. How much of that translates to a second look in Cleveland this fall or in a spring roster competition will be an interesting development thread in the Guardians system heading into the offseason.
Campbell Keeps Finding Zeros in September
Justin Campbell (AAA, RHP, Rank: 28) worked 4.2 innings last week, allowing one earned run on three hits with a walk and four strikeouts, his fourth consecutive strong outing at Columbus. Over his last 30 days, he carries a 2.45 ERA across 14.2 innings in four starts at Triple-A, with 16 strikeouts, five walks, and a 25.8 percent strikeout rate in that span. The full Triple-A season line reads 2.08 ERA in five starts, and his combined 2026 ERA across High-A, Double-A, and Triple-A sits at 2.48 over 69 innings. That is a starter who has moved through three levels this season without the run prevention deteriorating, a meaningful statement.
Campbell is a 25-year-old right-hander who sits 94-96 with a four-seamer, backs it with a 55-grade slider in the mid-80s that generates genuine swinging misses, and rounds the arsenal out with a cutter, curveball, and changeup. The strike-throwing improved significantly as he climbed: the walk rate at High-A was 8.5 percent, crept up to 14.5 percent at Double-A, then came back down to 8.7 percent at Triple-A. The command drifts arm-side under pressure, and the fastball sits closer to average than dominant, which leaves a thin margin against the best hitters in the system. The slider is the separator. His combined whiff rate of 31.0 percent this season is the most encouraging number in the profile, because it says the swing-and-miss is real even as the pitch mix and sequencing continue to develop. A back-end rotation profile with upside toward a fourth starter is the honest ceiling, and right now Campbell is pitching his way into that conversation at the right time of year.
Quick Hits
Ralphy Velazquez (AAA, 1B, Rank: 2) · drove in three runs on five hits, including four doubles, in 17 plate appearances last week at Columbus. The doubles binge fits a profile built around consistent hard contact to the pull side and right-center: he is a 60 power, 55 hit tool bat who has already hit 29 home runs and 25 doubles on the combined season. The full 2026 line across Double-A and Triple-A reads .290/.379/.548, and he drove in 93 runs in 121 games. The one live concern is a contact rate of 62.2 percent over his last 30 days, which represents a meaningful dip, and a 50.1 percent swing rate that has been aggressive all season. Still, a 21-year-old first baseman posting those numbers at Triple-A has very few peers in the minors right now. I would bet on the power holding.
Kahlil Watson (AAA, LF, Rank: 22) · put together a decent week on paper, going 6-for-22 with a double and three walks in 22 plate appearances. Over his last 30 days, though, he is hitting .234 with a 9.2 percent walk rate at Columbus, a step back from the patient approach he showed earlier in the season when the walk rate sat at 13.3 percent for the full Triple-A year. The contact rate of 66.5 percent over the last month and a season-long 67.0 percent rate at Columbus are consistent, and they explain why the MLB cameo (35.2 percent strikeout rate in 91 plate appearances) went the way it did. The 60 speed and 33 combined steals on the year keep the profile interesting as a fourth-outfielder type, and three home runs in his last 19 games show the power remains a real tool. Whether the approach sharpens enough to hold an MLB roster spot beyond up-down duty is still the central question.
Yorman Gómez (AAA, RHP, Rank: 30) · had his best outing of the month last week, throwing four scoreless innings while retiring all 13 batters he faced and allowing no hits or walks against just one strikeout. That is an encouraging line for a starter who carries a 6.52 ERA over 59.1 innings at Triple-A this season, a significant regression from the 2.96 ERA he posted across 121.2 innings at High-A and Double-A in 2025. The 2026 walk rate at Columbus is 12.5 percent, well above the 9.5 percent he maintained at both levels last year, and the season-long strike rate of 42.1 percent is thin. One outing does not fix a difficult year, but the underlying profile from 2025 was real, and a zero-line in four innings at least suggests the command can show up when the mechanics cooperate.