Sink or Swim - Brendan Collins

If you were to look at Brendan Collins’ player biography, you’d find that the Wilmington Blue Rocks’ pitcher played for UNC Greensboro before being drafted. However, as he admits and has come to appreciate, his journey to his professional baseball career is a lot more complicated than it appears on the surface.

Many professional baseball players, his teammates included, played throughout high school, got recruited to play at a university, and eventually got drafted by a major league team. This was the plan for Collins, who, growing up with an older brother and dad who played the game, became interested in and good at baseball at an early age.

“I also played football and basketball growing up, but baseball was always what I excelled at,” Collins says, adding that he grew up both pitching and at third base. “I’ve always had a good arm.”

Collins pitched for his high school team in Maryland, but tore his elbow heading into his junior year, a situation that would divert and ultimately shape the path of his career. Because of the injury, Collins wasn’t able to pitch his last two years of high school and instead contributed to the team in the batter’s box and at first base.

“It was tough because I was always known as a pitcher and I was trying to get recruited as a pitcher. Baseball just wasn’t what it was.”

He was told that he couldn’t pitch again unless he had Ulnar Collateral Ligament Reconstruction, also known as Tommy John surgery, and decided to have the procedure after graduating high school.

Collins attended Radford University, a smaller Division I school in Virginia, and was granted a medical redshirt his freshman year to continue his recovery. The entire process, complete with months of no-throw rehabilitation, months of a progressional throwing program and physical setbacks from fatigue and pain, took a year and a half.

Having your career sidelined by something out of your control can be daunting and debilitating, especially at such a young age. However, Collins remained focused and knew what he needed to do to make his dreams a reality.

“It was sink or swim,” he explains. “I wanted to play.”

After his second year at Radford, Collins was cut from the team and entered the transfer portal.

“I hadn't played, hadn’t pitch in several years, so getting recruited back was tough,” Collins says, explaining that he decided to attend Brunswick Community College in North Carolina to get back on track.

“When I got there, I tried everything to make my arm feel better. I've done every kind of workout, every kind of throwing program, everything I could find online,” Collins says of his time at the junior college. “We tried everything until something worked.”

And one day, something did work, and it stuck.

“I think it was less like ‘I didn’t have it,’ and more like ‘I had to find it.’ It was in me already, I just had to find what I was looking for.”

Collins spent his junior year at Brunswick continuing his education and showcasing his skills to scouts, a reality that seemed unreachable just a few months prior.

“I was cut from my college team and three months later I’m sitting on 96 (mph) in the bullpen in front of pro scouts.”

The work paid off, and Collins was recruited to play at UNC Greensboro for his senior year. He had a successful year with the Spartans (3-3 record with 51 strikeouts in 50.1 innings) and, despite juggling transferring credits from two other schools, managed to graduate with a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics.

His draft story, like other parts of his journey to professional baseball, is an unconventional one.

“I wasn’t too sure if I was going to be drafted, because I only played one full year of college,” Collins says, recalling the static silence from the first two days of the 2021 MLB Draft.

The third day, he received calls from numerous clubs, including the Nationals. “They were asking me what my number was,” he says. “I just wanted to play.”

Not hearing any more, Collins sat in the basement of his family home constantly refreshing his phone for updates on the Draft. Suddenly, his name appeared.

In the 17th round, with the 503rd pick in the 2021 MLB Draft, the Nationals selected Brendan Collins of UNC Greensboro.

Growing up right outside of Washington DC and a huge Nationals fan, Collins describes the moment as “a dream come true.”

Now in his third season in the minor leagues, Collins continues his journey as a member of the Wilmington Blue Rocks’ bullpen.

He worked through the toughest injury and coinciding surgery that a pitcher could work through in high school and spent his second season in the minors rehabbing a flexor strain. Going through multiple career-altering injuries, Collins knows that the key to playing his best is by taking care of himself physically and maintaining the right headspace.

“I never want to be the guy to say ‘no.’ The mindset is to stay healthy. I know I have what it takes to do it. It's just getting it at the highest level I can and not worrying about other people,” Collins says. “Do what I can do. That's all I can do.”