'Convicted in who I am': Collins heating up after cold start

This story was excerpted from Anne Rogers’ Royals Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

DETROIT – Isaac Collins had a lot going on in his mind at the beginning of the 2026 season, getting adjusted to a new team, a new ballpark and a new city after the Royals acquired him from the Brewers this offseason.

Any player new to a team wants to start hot, but Collins was anything but – and it was magnified by the Royals’ poor start as a team.

“I feel like the first few months of the year, I was trying to do way too much,” Collins said.

Now? Collins is looking much more settled in, and he’s producing like the hitter the Royals believed they were acquiring.

“I really just honed in on what I’m trying to do each time I get to the plate,” Collins said. “Looking where I need to look and getting my pitch. Just staying on my approach and just being really convicted. That’s kind of been the big theme for me lately, is just being convicted in who I am as a hitter and who I am as a player.

“There were some good games in the first few months of the year, but then it would just feel like I would take a step back two or three games later. But lately, it’s just been building, keep climbing the mountain.”

Just like we did for Lane Thomas in the last newsletter, it’s easy to break Collins’ season into two stints. And for him, like much of the Royals’ offense, the production started when the calendar flipped to June:

From March 27-May 31…
188 PA, .217/.335/.318, 7 2B, 3 HR, 13.3% walk rate, 26.6% strikeout rate, 88 wRC+

From June 1-July 24…
155 PA, .279/.359/.441, 11 2B, 3 HR, 9.7% walk rate, 19.4% strikeout rate, 123 wRC+

Entering Saturday, Collins’ wRC+ for the season was up to 104 – just above league average.

“Far more consistent at-bats, far more consistent control of the strike zone,” manager Matt Quatraro said. “I think that’s why we’ve seen the on-base and results go up.”

Collins is not an overly mechanical hitter, and his prep is simple. He explains his approach as finding his best swing against the pitch he wants to do damage on and not swinging at anything else or making any last-minute decisions, especially when he has fewer than two strikes. It helps him not get sped up during an at-bat, or if he does get sped up, to make quick adjustments the next time.

“A lot of it is just timing,” said assistant hitting coach Connor Dawson, who worked with Collins in Milwaukee. “When he’s right, you see him using the entire field, not just center field, which I think we’ve seen a lot of lately.”

Staying with that approach proved to be the most difficult when he was struggling at the beginning of the year.

“I always think of it like a beach,” Dawson said. “It’s easy to think you’re close to the beach when you’re in the ocean, but you can drift off quickly if you don’t have an anchor. Isaac’s got a great anchor in his work. He needs to be consistent with it, and keeping him tied to his anchor is really the main thing.”

Collins can’t just erase the first two months of the season, and neither can the Royals. Their performance is why they’re in the spot they’re in right now, out of contention and operating as sellers at the Trade Deadline. That’s not where they imagined they would be.

But the season continues no matter what your record is after May, and there’s no use in digging a deeper hole if you can figure out ways to play better. That’s the mindset Collins and many other hitters took, and they’re seeing the benefits of it.

“It’s not easy,” Collins said. “It’s uncomfortable. Difficult. But that’s the big leagues for you. This game will get you questioning stuff. It’ll really test you, see if that doubt in your mind will stay there. You have to overcome it. But I’m just trying to stay positive and convicted in who I am as a hitter and player.”