Surging Royals outfielder’s affinity for Kauffman Stadium makes offseason trade look even better

The Kansas City Royals have found themselves on a good run of form in recent weeks, launching themselves from the basement of the American League to now just a half game back of the final AL Wild Card spot and two games back of top spot in the AL Central. A lot of this has come down to how well they’ve played at home this season, sporting a 13-10 record in the confines of Kauffman Stadium.

It’s no secret that traditionally it’s always easier for teams to play at home, but some players just take that comfort to a whole new level. For the Royals this season, that’s been precisely the case for newcomer Isaac Collins. While it took him awhile to really find his footing in a Royals uniform, the dynamic switch hitter has looked more of a force to be reckoned with at the plate during the team’s strong run of late, and his home splits are the primary reason why.

In 80 plate appearances across 20 home games this season, Collins has hit to the tune of a .318/.438/.485 slash line with three homers, 10 RBI, 15 runs scored, a 15% walk rate and a 159 wRC+. It’s safe to say he likes his new digs.

This has resulted in him looking much more like the prized piece of the Royals’ offseason trade with the Milwaukee Brewers. Overall now, he’s hitting .241 with a .713 OPS and above-average 104 wRC+. If there were still any doubts that Kansas City came out as the clear victor in that deal, even after Angel Zerpa’s season-ending injury with Milwaukee last week, then Collins’ home splits are all but quashing them.

Isaac Collins’ next step will be finding a way to hit on the road for Royals

As is usually the case, nothing is perfect and there’s often a caveat to be found in even the best of circumstances. For Collins this season, it’s been his road form, which has paled in comparison to the performance he’s put on for the Royals faithful at Kauffman Stadium in the early going.

His advanced metrics leave room for improvement, but with strikeout to walk metrics favoring his home splits as well as his hard-hit rates, there’s reason to believe that translating some of that form to his road games would only benefit him and make him at least a somewhat above-average hitter in certain metrics. He’s currently under the 40th percentile in both K-rate and whiff rate and between the 40-49th percentile in hard-hit rate, barrel rate and average exit velocity this season.

Now with a newly renovated Kauffman Stadium to make it a more hitter friendly environment, the fact that they Royals are seeing success with bottom-half of the order hitters like Collins is an encouraging sight. Everyone plays 81 games and 81 games on the road, so it’s safe to say that most teams would prefer their guys to excel at home and take care of business where everyone on the roster should feel more comfortable first and foremost.

However, for a regular fixture in the lineup like Collins is, with as much team control as he has remaining, he has the makings of being a real piece for this team to grow with in the future. So, being able to be even be marginally better on the road would certainly make the Royals feel exponentially more comfortable with their winter investment in him.