Kansas City Royals Should Consider Trading Tim Collins
By Brad Berreman
@bradberreman24
Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
The Kansas City Royals have made an improbable run through the postseason, and 2014 will go down as a successful year whether they win the World Series or not. The current roster looks likely to remain mostly intact going forward, but there may be some opportunities for general manager Dayton Moore to make moves this offseason.
The Royals’ bullpen has been a strength all season, led by closer Greg Holland and primary setup man Wade Davis. Tim Collins has developed into a key left-hander out of the bullpen for Kansas City, which continued this year as he posted a 3.86 ERA over 22 regular season appearances, but he spent nearly a month on the disabled list early in the season with an elbow issue and then was sent to Triple-A in June before being called back up in September. Add in just one postseason appearance before Tuesday night’s Game 1 of the World Series, and now looks like the time for the Royals to trade Collins.
Collins stands out in part due to his slight build (5’7″, 170 lbs.), but opposing hitters couldn’t pay attention to that with the 9.7 K/9 rate he posted from 2011-2013 over 206 appearances. That K/9 rate fell fairly dramatically during his time with the Royals this year though, to just 6.4, but he did post a 11.9 K/9 rate over 23 minor league appearances.
Collins’ fastball velocity remains solid (92.3 this year, per FanGraphs.com), but that is close to a mile per-hour slower than his fastball velocity was in 2012 (93.1) and that may point to a looming physical breakdown. Tim Lincecum stands out as a recent example of a pitcher with small frame that hit a wall and hasn’t been able to recapture his previous form consistently, so it’s at least worth wondering if Collins is headed down a similar path.
Collins is a fairly unique combination of youth (age 25) and experience, and he clearly seems to be the odd-man out in Kansas City’s bullpen looking toward 2015. He should still have a lot of value to other teams, as a left-handed reliever that has been equally tough on left-handed (.224 batting average against) and right-handed (.227) hitters during his career. So the Royals need to strongly consider dealing Collins this offseason, assuming a solid return can be had.
Brad Berreman is a Columnist at Rant Sports.com. Connect with him on Google +.
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