Royals’ offseason trade addition is off to a lackluster start

Royals’ offseason trade addition is off to a lackluster start originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Last season, Isaac Collins was great in his first full year with the Milwaukee Brewers. Across 130 games, he hit .263/.368/.411 with nine home runs and 54 runs batted in.

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Surprisingly, during the offseason, the Brew Crew decided to trade him, alongside Nick Mears, to the Kansas City Royals in exchange for pitcher Angel Zerpa.

Fans were fired up for this trade. They were getting someone who finished in the top-4 of NL Rookie of the Year voting, but he has not quite looked the part this season. He has failed to get much of anything going at the plate, while his play in left field has not been as sharp as some would have hoped.

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Royals’ offseason trade addition is off to a lackluster start

So far, Collins has played in 26 games. Across that, he has hit .215/.333/.304 with two home runs and eight runs batted in. He also has not been the greatest in left field, either.

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He’s not the sole reason for Kansas City‘s rough start, but he is certainly a part of it. With what he has done so far, Bleacher Report’s Kerry Miller tags him as the club’s “least valuable player.”

“It was a head scratcher when Milwaukee gave up not only Collins after a solid rookie season but also Nick Mears to get Angel Zerpa from the Royals. Perhaps the Brewers knew regression was coming for him? Even after a few multi-hit efforts in the past 10 days, Collins has a .644 OPS and has been a mess on defense in left field.”

The Royals could use him stepping it up both offensively and defensively. They have started with a 12-19 record, which puts them in the basement of the AL Central, which none of the fans would have considered possible at this point in the season.

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