The Cincinnati Reds have signed left-handed pitcher Tim Collins and assigned him to Triple-A. The lefty has pitched in the Major Leagues this season, posting a 3.12 ERA for the Chicago Cubs in 8.2 innings. Over that time he allowed nine hits, walked three, and he struck out four. Over his career, he’s pitched in parts of six seasons in the Majors, throwing 242.1 innings with a 3.60 ERA.
The 29-year-old has spent most of his season in Triple-A Iowa with the Cubs organization. He threw 27.0 innings in 28 relief appearances and posted a 4.67 ERA. Tim Collins racked up the strikeouts in the Pacific Coast League, striking out 37 batters in that time. But he also walked 16 batters – though three of those were intentional.
While we are looking at limited action in the Major Leagues, he’s averaged 92.3 MPH on his fastball, which has plenty of cutting action to it. He’s also mixes in more of a pure cutter at 89 MPH. There’s a curveball that he’ll go to about 20% of the time, too, that works in the mid 70’s.
For now it looks like he will join the Louisville Bats bullpen. But given the bullpen struggles at times in the Majors for the Reds, if he pitches well he could be given some real consideration for a call up rather soon. He’s been rather dominant against lefties for the season between his two levels. They are hitting just .157/.254/.314 on the year against him.
With all of that said, July was the one month where he struggled, and he really struggled. From April through June opposing hitters had a .190/.284/.360 line against him. But in July he saw that line jump up to .303/.395/.727 across nine games and 38 plate appearances.