Blue Jays benefit from Collins' Zack attack

Newcomer Zach Collins arrived from the Chicago White Sox and filled a vacancy at the clean-up spot.

April 27, 2022

How Zack Collins Attacking The Fastball Led To Offensive Success

By Cole Shelton

Canadian Baseball Network

Zack Collins was touted as the catcher of the future for the Chicago White Sox after they chose him in the first round (10th overall) from the University of Miami in the 2016 draft.

Cincinnati Reds cross checker Bill Byckowski (Georgetown, Ont.) had selected Collins as a high schooler three years earlier in the 27th round. And he and the Reds had Collins in the mix with their second pick in 2016 before settling on Nick Senzel from the University of Tennessee Volunteers.

From the get-go, Collins was an offensive catcher who was mashing balls in college, with his defensive game needing work. Yet, as long as he was hitting he was going to bring value.

Although Collins’ bat was the reason the White Sox drafted him, he struggled once he saw big league pitchers. He hit .186 in 27 games in 2019, .063 in nine games in 2020 and .210 in 78 games in 2021. After three seasons, the Sox traded Collins to Toronto for fellow catcher Reese McGuire, and since the trade, all Collins has done is hit.

So far, in 10 games which is 36 at-bats, Collins hats 11 hits, three of them being home runs along with seven RBIs and a .306 batting average. The whiff rate and strikeouts are still there, but now, the 27-year-old is picking up on the fastball and making pitchers pay. He has two doubles, three home runs and seven RBIs (.935 OPS) and the Blue Jays have had him hitting clean-up.

In 2019, he had a .111 batting average on fastballs along with a whiff rate of 39.1% while in 2020 he batted .159 with a 39.1% whiff rate, and in 2021, he started to pick up on it a little better as he hit .228 and only whiffed on it 23.9% of the time.

Now, however, since coming to Toronto, he is batting .381 on fastballs going into Tuesday night’s game against the Boston Red Sox. He is also making harder contact with an exit velocity of 94.9 which is the highest of his career, a hard-hit percentage of 54.5% which ties 2020, and a launch angle of 24.2 which is well above his career average of 20.

With Collins now making more and harder contact on the fastball, the next step will be to work on the breaking balls. He has yet to get hit off a breaking pitch this season which he has been thrown 34 times, but given he has been hitting off-speed pitches to a tune of .333, he can be patient at the plate and wait for the fastball or off-speed and make the pitcher pay.

Regardless, so far in the early parts of the season, Collins’ bat has been one of the surprising parts of the Blue Jays’ lineup and has helped fill a key role with Danny Jansen hurt. Once Jansen returns, Toronto will have a tough choice on which bat gets in the lineup between Collins and Alejandro Kirk as both have been hitting the ball well.