Isaac Collins is the second straight Brewers player to be named NL rookie of the month
ATLANTA – Isaac Collins isn't already a household name like Jacob Misiorowski.
But the outfielder has joined his Milwaukee Brewers teammate in earning plaudits for his standout play, being named the National League's rookie of the month for July on Monday, Aug. 4.
Misiorowski won the June award.
"I was a little shocked, honestly," Collins said. "I knew I had a pretty good month, but I didn't know it was that good.
"It's cool."
Collins, 28, batted .321 with two home runs and 11 runs batted in while producing an OPS of .847 over 23 games while serving as the Brewers' primary leftfielder.
He posted seven multi-hit games in all while also becoming the 15th rookie in franchise history to post at least 25 hits, 10 walks and 10 RBI in a calendar month, with Jackson Chourio the last to do so last September (26 hits, 11 walks, 16 RBI).
Collins is also the only player in that group with under 100 plate appearances to accomplish the feat, and is the first qualified rookie to hit those marks in a calendar month with fewer than 100 plate appearances since Detroit's Colt Keith in July 2024 (28 hits, 12 walks, 17 RBI in 99 plate appearances).
With 16 games with a hit in July, Collins tied Christian Yelich for third on the Brewers behind Chourio (21 games) and William Contreras (17).
"It's just his consistency," said manager Pat Murphy. "Defense, offense, baserunning, teammate. His third at-bat's better than his second at-bat. He's just got the right temperament. He's relentless and he kind of does it in his own manner.
"He doesn't look for attention or try to stand out or be the guy that's notices. He just plays with consistency, and I love his style."
For the season, Collins is hitting .279 with six homers and 32 RBI while posting an OPS of .783 and stealing 12 bases.
"A lot of confidence, for sure," Collins said. "I don't know exactly what it was, but there was just a point in the year where I realized that my process and my game works up here, and so I don't really need to do anything more or anything less.
"Just stick to my process and just try to be the best version of myself every night and execute. And if I can do that, then I know the results will show and that I'll help the team win."
Defensively, Collins leads all Milwaukee players and ranks 12th among all major-league outfielders with seven outs above average while also accounting for four defensive runs saved.
His fWAR (FanGraphs Wins Above Replacement) of 2.3 is fourth-best on the Brewers behind Jackson Chourio and Sal Frelick (2.8) and William Contreras (2.6).
While Collins isn't going to provide much slug over the course of the season, what he will do is provide good swing decisions; he's in the 94th percentile in the majors when it comes to not chasing bad pitches and in the 89th percentile when it comes to drawing walks, contributing to his .378 on-base percentage.
"He swings at the strikes and takes balls and hits balls really hard and with a good flight plan," said Murphy. "When he hits 'em, he hits 'em on a line as much as anyone.
"He takes his walks, forces the pitcher into good hitting counts. He's a good offensive player."
It's really an incredible story when one looks at Collins's ascent to the majors from being a stalled ninth-round pick of the Colorado Rockies out of Creighton in 2019 to a minor-league Rule 5 pick of the Brewers in December of 2022 to now becoming one of the team's more indispensable and reliable players.
"I definitely would have been shocked if someone told me (I'd be in this position a year ago," said Collins, whose major-league debut with Milwaukee came last September.
"But I also knew I'm a big-leaguer and I knew that if I could just get that every day opportunity, I knew the best version of me would be able to play. Doing it night in and night out, that's the hardest part.
"That's the challenge."
Collins is the ninth Brewers player to win the award, and it's the 10th time a Brewers player has been so honored.