Heart over Height: The Tim Collins Story

Becoming a professional pitcher is very difficult. Not only do you have to work ridiculously hard to even have a chance at the bigs, but you also must go through at least five or six different levels of professional baseball to have a shot at a major league roster. That’s why only 10% of drafted players make it to The Show, with undrafted players having even less of a chance. Impressing scouts could be the difference between your shot at the MLB and sitting on your couch working a real job. There are very few players who may not look the part but will have the talent and the work ethic to make it; Tim Collins is one of those players.

When you first look at Tim Collins, all 5’7" and 175 pounds of him, you would never think that he would be a former MLB pitcher, but he was a solid one at that. Collins was born on August 21st, 1989, in Worcester, Massachusetts. He would attend Worcester Technical High School and compile an overall record of 91-5. He would also throw a no-hitter in the district championship game, which was just the second no-hitter in the school's history. Despite his talent, Collins was overlooked by scouts because of his height; however, that would all change.

Former Blue Jays general manager JP Ricciardi flew out to Worcester to watch an American Legion game where Keith Landers, a 6’7" left-hander with tremendous upside at the time, was set to start. However, Landers didn’t pitch that day; Collins did. After four innings of work, Collins struck out every batter he faced. This impressed Ricciardi so much that he signed Collins to a contract after he finished high school. Collins would go undrafted and never go to college, and yet he still found himself fighting for his shot at the bigs.

Collins' first appearance for the Gulf Coast Blue Jays drew laughter from the opposing team. He would strike out the first batter he saw and get through a clean inning, so he got the last laugh. From 2007 to 2009, when he pitched in Single-A and Double-A, Collins pitched 151 2/3 innings and had a 2.37 ERA, 221 strikeouts on just 69 walks.

After 2009, Collins was named Toronto’s Postseason Minor League Player of the Year, and he was recognized by Baseball America as having one of the best curveballs in all baseball. 2010 proved to be a pivotal year for Collins in multiple ways. Collins would start off the year in Double-A with the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, where he had a solid 2.51 ERA in 43 innings pitched. However, he would be traded to the Atlanta Braves, where he would pitch in their Double-A system for a short while. Twenty-one days later, Collins, along with Jesse Chavez and Gregor Blanco, would be traded to the Royals for Kyle Farnsworth and Rick Ankiel. Collins would end the year pitching in Triple-A for the Omaha Stormchasers. Less than a year later, Collins would make it onto the Royals’ opening day roster.

Collins would make his debut on March 11th, 2011, against the Los Angeles Angels. He would pitch one inning without giving up a run and struck out Torii Hunter for his first career punchout. Three days later, he earned his first win by pitching three scoreless innings against the Angels in extra innings, striking out five in the process. He would finish 2011 with a solid 3.63 ERA with 60 strikeouts in 67 innings pitched. 2012 would be another fruitful year for Collins as he would pitch to a 3.36 ERA with 93 strikeouts, the most in a single season by a left-handed reliever in Royals history. The next two years would be much of the same for Collins as he went 3-9 with an ERA of 3.63. However, he would miss all of 2014 and 2015 due to Tommy John surgery, meaning he wasn’t able to pitch during the Royals’ World Series run. Collins would elect free agency in 2016, ending his run with the Royals.

Collins wouldn’t have the same success as he did with the Royals, as he would bounce around multiple teams on minor league contracts. He would get another chance in the bigs with the Nationals in 2018, which was unsuccessful, as his ERA would balloon to 4.37, and he would only pitch 22 2/3 innings before being sent back down to Triple-A. He would sign with the Cubs in 2019, have mild success, but it was short-lived. He would play with the Reds and Rockies before opting out of the Covid-shortened 2020 season; he has not pitched in MLB since. He’s now the pitching coach for the Jersey Shore BlueClaws, the Philadelphia Phillies’ single-A affiliate.

Tim Collins’ success story is one of hard work and a little bit of luck. If he didn’t pitch on that fateful day, he probably wouldn’t have pitched in the bigs at all. But sometimes life works in mysterious ways, and Collins was able to get the chance that so many young baseball players dream of. Will he get into the Hall of Fame? No. But he has something that not many baseball players can say. Despite his small frame and lack of velocity, he made it to the big leagues. No matter what people say, they can never take that away from him.