Tim Collins, a Philadelphia Phillies minor league pitching coach whose last competitive experience came in 2020, is attempting a comeback.
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Britt Ghiroli of The Athletic reported Sunday that the 36-year-old left-hander is doing more than posting workout videos to his Instagram account this offseason. Collins is planning to throw for scouts Wednesday at the Cressey Sports Performance pro day in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
Collins spent the last two seasons as a pitching coach in the Phillies’ minor league system. He joined the advanced Class-A Jersey Shore BlueClaws this past season after spending 2024 with Class-A Clearwater Threshers in the same capacity.
From 2011-19, Collins made 275 appearances, all in relief, for the Kansas City Royals (2011-14), Washington Nationals (2018), and Chicago Cubs (2019). He went 12-17 with a 3.60 ERA and struck out 245 batters in 242.1 innings.
Collins was part of a Royals bullpen that was instrumental in their run to the 2014 World Series. He made three appearances and pitched five innings in the seven-game Fall Classic, allowing only two runs.
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Collins needed Tommy John surgery in March 2015, and a revision of that procedure effectively knocked him out of baseball until late in the 2017 season. He would return to the big leagues with the Nats in May 2018, and made 68 appearances that season between the majors and the minors.
Collins became a free agent after the season, and he would split the 2019 and 2020 campaigns with the Cubs, Minnesota Twins, Cincinnati Reds and Colorado Rockies organizations.
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Collins opted out of the 2020 season after making seven appearances for the Rockies in spring training. Since then he has been active as a coach, offering private lessons and youth baseball camps before joining the Phillies’ organization as a coach.
A seven-year gap between major league appearances is rare, but not unheard of; recently retired pitcher Daniel Bard did so while serving as an Arizona Diamondbacks coach between stints with the Boston Red Sox in 2013 and the Colorado Rockies in 2020.
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