Zack Collins

Zack Collins

28-Year-Old CatcherC
Cleveland Guardians
2023 Fantasy Outlook
Collins lacks defensive ability, which puts a lot of pressure on his bat to either make up for his shortcomings behind the plate or to be good enough to regularly serve as a designated hitter. Through 459 career plate appearances, that has hardly been the case as he has a 74 wRC+ and .278 wOBA. He had his best opportunity to find a consistent big-league home in 2022 as a member of the backstop-needy Pirates but fell flat and was cut loose in November. Collins will enter the 2023 season as a 28-year-old, so his days as a well-regarded prospect are behind him. Read Past Outlooks
RANKSFrom Preseason
$Signed a one-year contract with the Guardians in February of 2023.
Outrighted to Triple-A
CCleveland Guardians  AAA
August 24, 2023
Collins cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Columbus on Thursday.
ANALYSIS
Collins can elect free agency if he wants, but if he accepts the outright assignment he'll stick around in the Guardians organization as catching depth. The veteran backstop lost his roster spot earlier this week when the club claimed Eric Haase off waivers.
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Batting Stats
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2022
2021
2020
2019
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2022 MLB Game Log
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2021 MLB Game Log
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2020 MLB Game Log
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Batting Order Slot Breakdown
vs Right-Handed Pitchers
vs RHP
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8
#9
vs Left-Handed Pitchers
vs LHP
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8
#9
1
1
Left/Right Batting Splits
Since 2021
 
 
+19%
OPS vs RHP
2023
 
 
+10%
OPS vs LHP
2022
 
 
+36%
OPS vs RHP
2021
 
 
+29%
OPS vs RHP
OPS PA R HR RBI SB AVG OBP SLG
Since 2021vs Left .560 79 4 1 7 0 .191 .295 .265
Since 2021vs Right .664 266 30 7 30 1 .197 .308 .355
2023vs Left 1.100 5 0 0 0 0 .500 .600 .500
2023vs Right 1.000 1 0 0 0 0 .000 1.000 .000
2022vs Left .421 15 0 0 1 0 .154 .267 .154
2022vs Right .571 93 9 4 10 0 .155 .226 .345
2021vs Left .550 59 4 1 6 0 .176 .276 .275
2021vs Right .710 172 21 3 20 1 .222 .349 .361
More Splits View More Split Stats
Home/Away Batting Splits
Since 2021
 
 
+7%
OPS at Home
2023
 
 
-100%
OPS at Home
2022
 
 
+18%
OPS on Road
2021
 
 
+16%
OPS at Home
OPS PA R HR RBI SB AVG OBP SLG
Since 2021Home .662 171 16 3 15 1 .206 .335 .326
Since 2021Away .618 174 18 5 22 0 .187 .276 .342
2023Home 1.167 6 0 0 0 0 .500 .667 .500
2023Away 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2022Home .504 58 3 1 4 0 .143 .259 .245
2022Away .596 50 6 3 7 0 .167 .200 .396
2021Home .722 107 13 2 11 1 .227 .358 .364
2021Away .624 124 12 2 15 0 .196 .306 .318
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Stat Review
How does Zack Collins compare to other hitters?
This section compares his stats with all batting seasons from the previous three seasons (minimum 400 plate appearances)*. The bar represents the player's percentile rank. For example, if the bar is halfway across, then the player falls into the 50th percentile for that stat and it would be considered average.

* Exit Velocity and Barrels/PA % are benchmarked against 2019 data (min 400 PA) and Hard Hit Rate is benchmarked against last season's data (min 400 PA). See here for more exit velocity/barrels stats plus an explanation of current limitations with that data set.
  • BB/K
    Walk to strikeout ratio
  • BB Rate
    The percentage of plate appearances resulting in a walk.
  • K Rate
    The percentage of plate appearances resulting in a strikeout.
  • BABIP
    Batting average on balls in play. Measures how many of a batter’s balls in play go for hits.
  • ISO
    Isolated Power. Slugging percentage minus batting average. A computation used to measure a batter's raw power.
  • AVG
    Batting average. Hits divided by at bats.
  • OBP
    On Base Percentage. A measure of how often a batters reaches base. Roughly equal to number of times on base divided by plate appearances.
  • SLG
    Slugging Percentage. A measure of the batting productivity of a hitter. It is calculated as total bases divided by at bats.
  • OPS
    On base plus slugging. THe sum of a batter's on-base percentage and slugging percentage.
  • wOBA
    Weighted on-base average. Measures a player's overall offensive contributions per plate appearance. wOBA combines all the different aspects of hitting into one metric, weighting each of them in proportion to their actual run value.
  • Exit Velocity
    The speed of the baseball as it comes off the bat, immediately after a batter makes contact.
  • Hard Hit Rate
    A measure of contact quality from Sports Info Solutions. This stat explains what percentage of batted balls were hit hard vs. medium or soft.
  • Barrels/PA
    The percentage of plate appearances where a batter had a batted ball classified as a Barrel. A Barrel is a batted ball with similar exit velocity and launch angle to past ones that led to a minimum .500 batting average and 1.500 slugging percentage.
  • Expected BA
    Expected Batting Average.
  • Expected SLG
    Expected Slugging Percentage.
  • Sprint Speed
    The speed of a runner from home to first, in feet per second.
  • Ground Ball %
    The percentage of balls put in play that are on the ground.
  • Line Drive %
    The percentage of balls put in play that are line drives.
  • Fly Ball %
    The percentage of balls put in play that are fly balls.
BB/K
1.00
 
BB Rate
33.3%
 
K Rate
33.3%
 
BABIP
1.000
 
ISO
.000
 
AVG
.500
 
OBP
.667
 
SLG
.500
 
OPS
1.167
 
wOBA
.527
 
Exit Velocity
100.0 mph
 
Hard Hit Rate
50.0%
 
Barrels/PA
0.0%
 
Expected BA
.444
 
Expected SLG
.584
 
Sprint Speed
22.4 ft/sec
 
Ground Ball %
0.0%
 
Line Drive %
100.0%
 
Fly Ball %
0.0%
 
Prospect Rankings History
Advanced Batting Stats
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Additional Stats
Games By Position
Defensive Stats
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Batted Ball Stats
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Stats Vs Upcoming Pitchers
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Recent RotoWire Articles Featuring Zack Collins See More
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364 days ago
Pitching remains Jan Levine's focus for the final week of September.
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Erik Siegrist scopes out the waiver options in the AL as top Rays prospect Josh Lowe gets another shot at proving he's ready to handle big-league pitching.
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Todd Zola examines the league-wide stolen-base environment and identifies some speedy players who could be valuable as streaming options, including Andres Gimenez.
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May 9, 2022
Erik Halterman uses Monday's column to compare a player's NFBC average draft position to his Earned Auction Value ranking, beginning his analysis with Marlins starting pitcher Pablo Lopez.
Yahoo DFS Baseball: Wednesday Picks
April 27, 2022
Mike Barner previews Wednesday’s Yahoo slate, turning to a Braves bat stack against the Cubs.
Past Fantasy Outlooks
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
A first-round draft pick in 2016, Collins made his big-league debut with the White Sox a few years later but has never been able to put everything together enough to keep a consistent spot in the majors. The 27-year-old offers some power potential, having slugged 19 homers in 88 games for Triple-A Charlotte in 2019, and draws enough walks to sport a decent OBP, but his hit tool remains subpar and his defensive work isn't strong enough for regular duty behind the plate, leaving him stuck in limbo. Chicago flipped him to Toronto for Reese McGuire, a catcher with a better reputation behind the plate but an inferior offensive profile, just before the 2022 campaign began, but Collins is now in an organization with plenty of young talent at his position including Alejandro Kirk and Gabriel Moreno, giving him no clear path to consistent at-bats beyond pinch hitting duties.
Collins made the White Sox's Opening Day roster, but with Yasmani Grandal and James McCann holding down the fort behind the plate at the major-league level, he played sparingly before being optioned to the alternate site in late August. Collins was not recalled down the stretch but did make the playoff roster. Collins' primary strength is plate patience and there is still some hope he develops power. However, the lack of a minor-league season curtailed those efforts along with depriving Collins a chance to work on his defensive. With McCann signing with the Mets, Collins has an opportunity to win the backup catcher job with a strong spring. If he does, Collins will be in play in points and OBP leagues given his ability to take a walk. Catcher eligibility would come quickly, but beware Collins is UT-only in many leagues again on draft day after he made five of his nine appearances at DH in 2020.
Collins can take a walk and has big raw power, demonstrating those skills with a 16.9 BB% and 19 homers in 88 games for Triple-A Charlotte last season. There are reasons for pessimism, however, with his small-sample rookie struggles (.186/.307/.349 in 102 plate appearances) representing just one of them. When factoring in defense, he is at best third on the catching depth chart behind Yasmani Grandal and James McCann, and Seby Zavala lingers as another big-league ready option. The White Sox have said all the right things about Collins' defense behind the plate, but actions speak louder than words, and their actions say that Collins will be competing for at-bats at designated hitter this year. After making 14 starts at DH compared to only 10 behind the plate in 2019, he's UT-only to begin 2020, and it might take a while for him to add catcher eligibility in season, if he adds it at all.
Collins has massive raw power, walks a lot and is reasonably close to the majors (134 games at Double-A), but the rest of his profile is pretty unappealing. He might end up as a below-average defensive catcher with a below-average hit tool, and that simply won't translate into significant playing time on a competitive big-league team. Current White Sox brass selected Collins with the 10th overall pick in 2016, so they have every incentive to try to make it work with him behind the dish. He has never posted an OBP lower than .365 above rookie ball and has enough raw power to hit 20 homers in 400 PA, so he could be a serviceable option in many formats if Chicago does give him significant playing time in 2019 or 2020. However, giving him starts over a no-offense/all-defense catcher would hurt them in the standings. If Kenny Williams and Rick Hahn want to win games, Collins may languish in the upper levels of the minors.
The gap between Collins' projected value in OBP leagues and standard rotisserie leagues is sizable. His best batting average above rookie ball is .258, when he had by far his highest BABIP (.333), yet he has notched an OBP of .418 or better at two of his last three stops. He is probably a little too patient at this point, regularly flirting with, and occasionally eclipsing a 20 percent walk rate. The plus power is real, as he finished third in the Carolina League in ISO (.220) and tied for third in home runs (17). If he could tap into that power a little more regularly, he would project as a top-10 fantasy catcher, assuming, of course, that he sticks at catcher. He has the arm for the position, but he is a below-average receiver, which could end up forcing a move to DH. The best-case scenario would be Yasmani Grandal-level production at catcher, while also getting starts at DH. The worst-case scenario is that he gets moved to DH full time, where he may not be very useful in standard formats.
Collins was selected in the first round of the 2016 draft out of the University of Miami, and the White Sox aggressively pushed the 21-year-old to High-A. The polished catcher more than held his own, notching almost as many walks (33) as strikeouts (39) over 36 games played at High-A Wilmington. Collins also clubbed six home runs en route to a slash line of .258/.418/.467. His professional approach at the dish and significant power potential make him one of the top catching prospects in the game, although there are some questions as to whether he has the overall defensive prowess to stay behind the plate long term. A move out from the catcher position would damper his fantasy potential a tad, but Collins' bat should play just about anywhere.
More Fantasy News
Booted off 40-man roster
CCleveland Guardians  AAA
August 21, 2023
The Guardians designated Collins for assignment Monday.
ANALYSIS
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Promoted from Triple-A
CCleveland Guardians  AAA
August 17, 2023
Collins was promoted from Triple-A Columbus on Thursday, Zack Meisel of The Athletic reports.
ANALYSIS
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Sent to minor-league camp
CCleveland Guardians  AAA
March 25, 2023
Collins was reassigned to minor-league camp Saturday, Zack Meisel of The Athletic reports.
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Inks MiLB deal with Cleveland
CCleveland Guardians  AAA
February 9, 2023
Collins signed a minor-league contract Thursday with the Guardians which includes an invitation to major-league spring training.
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Parts ways with Pittsburgh
CFree Agent  AAA
November 10, 2022
Collins rejected an outright assignment to Triple-A Indianapolis and elected free agency Thursday, Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic reports.
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