Atlanta Braves 2022 Minor League Player Review: Tyler Collins

One of the more intriguing prospects in the Atlanta Braves’ farm system for us coming into the 2022 season was outfielder Tyler Collins. The speedster was an eighth round overslot pick by the Braves in the 2021 draft, and he put together an impressive showing in Rookie ball after he was drafted. Unfortunately, his 2022 season ended up being a lost year.

Preseason Report Card

Coming into 2022, we had Collins ranked as the 20th-best prospect in the Braves’ farm system. Speedy contact hitters who are unlikely to hit for much power are a tough profile to get value out of, but Collins’ speed is on the extreme end of the scale and when we hear smart people throwing around names like “Kenny Lofton”, it gets our attention. That, combined with a strong pro debut, had us bullish on him.

What we saw in 2022

Sadly, we didn’t get the chance to see if Collins could reproduce (or exceed) the .877 OPS he posted in Rookie ball during his draft year. While we don’t know for certain, it seems extremely likely that Collins was dealing with some sort of injury situation as he played in just four games with the FCL Braves in 2022. He played a game on June 6, missed a couple of weeks, played three more games, and then didn’t play for the rest of the season.

2023 Outlook

The biggest question about Collins is in regards to what kept him out of action in 2022. If he had some sort of surgery, the start of the 2023 season could also be in jeopardy, but we are going to operate under the assumption that he is going to be healthy and good to go for 2023 until we have reason to believe otherwise. Two years removed from his draft year, it would be a pretty big disappointment if he didn’t see at least some time in full-season ball this year. Barring issues with his health, we do expect him to finally make his full season ball debut where we can see if his bat can play enough to allow him to stick around and make plays with his top-end speed.