Cam Collier’s relentlessness makes him first-round possibility even as one of draft’s youngest

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COTUIT, Mass. — On a warm afternoon in late June, four-and-a-half hours prior to first pitch, Cam Collier arrived at Lowell Park for early batting practice ahead of the Cotuit Kettleers’ Cape Cod Baseball League game that night.

He’d be leaving the Cape in two days to prepare for the 2022 MLB Draft, but that didn’t matter. There was still time to get a little more work in — and every little bit counts.

In the second inning, Collier grounded out on a 2-2 pitch, driving in the Kettleers’ first run in an eventual 3-2 win over the Orleans Firebirds. It was the first run Orleans’ starter Alex Amalfi had given up on the season. The early work for Collier had paid off.

That relentless attitude has driven Collier, one of the youngest players in this year’s draft, to status as a potential top-10 selection.

“I think the way I’d characterize this entire experience has been: Cam Collier could have sat at home,” said Cotuit head coach Mike Roberts, who served as head coach at the University of North Carolina for two decades and has been coaching the Kettleers since 2004. “He didn’t have to come here, and I think that tells you a lot initially. There are a lot of college guys that will go high in the draft sitting at home right now not playing. He wanted to play, he wanted to compete and get better.”

Sitting at home doesn’t seem to be Collier’s forte.

Collier, the son of former big leaguer Lou Collier, moved to the Atlanta area when he was 14 to attend Mount Paran Christian School, but when his freshman season was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic, he spent the spring and summer working out with older players, including current Braves rookie standout Michael Harris II. After excelling at the plate his sophomore year at Mount Paran, hitting .434 with 13 homers and 40 RBI, he decided to earn his GED, reclassify for the 2022 draft and enroll at Chipola College, one of the premier junior college baseball programs in the country.

It’s a similar path to that which Bryce Harper took ahead of his first overall selection in the 2010 draft, when he earned his GED and enrolled in the College of Southern Nevada. As Harper did more than a decade ago, Collier is betting himself. If it works out, he could be the first junior college hitter taken in the first round since the White Sox took Tim Anderson 17th overall in 2013.

“My freshman year we thought about (reclassifying) a little bit, then sophomore year happened and it seemed like something we could do,” Collier said. “Played summer ball and then talked to my family and my advisor, and it just happened because I was playing with guys who were older and working out with guys in professional baseball — Major League Baseball players — playing with them and knowing I’m not that (far) off, influenced me to get my GED and go to Chipola.”

The elevated level of competition at Chipola this past spring didn’t slow Collier down. In 52 games, he hit .333 with a .956 OPS and eight homers along with 25 walks compared to 33 strikeouts. The season at Chipola pitted Collier, who won’t turn 18 until Nov. 20, against older, more experienced players.

“Coach (Jeff) Johnson really helped me develop a lot,” Collier said. “He just let me go and taught me a lot too. Stuck me at third base, stuck me in the three-hole and let me develop, and because of that, I became so much better, by his routines, how he ran practice, everything made me a lot better, and got me a lot more in shape and made me learn so much more about myself and about baseball.”

But even with the strong junior college season ahead of the draft, a performance that put him solidly into first-round contention, Collier wanted to push his limits further. When an opportunity to play in the Cape League presented itself, he didn’t hesitate.

Since the Cape League became sanctioned by the NCAA in 1963, the league has operated under a strict rule of only allowing players with NCAA eligibility — meaning that high school players aren’t accepted. Collier was effectively a high schooler by age, but his play at Chipola made him eligible.

Cotuit Kettleers director of baseball operations Peter Flaherty had been following the chatter around Collier’s reclassification and rise to the top of the 2022 draft boards and presented the lefty-hitting third baseman to Roberts as a player to pursue for his summer roster, even if he’d only be able to play for a short time before the draft.

When Collier stepped to the plate for his first Cape League at-bat on June 12, he became the youngest player in Cape League history since the NCAA sanctioning in 1963, according to league historian Mike Richard. Right-hander Robert Stock, who has pitched parts of four seasons in the majors, played for Roberts on the Kettleers in 2007 as a 17-year-old after enrolling early at the University of Southern California. While Stock’s Nov. 21 birthday technically made him a day younger than Collier at the time he played, the Cape League season started a few days later in 2007, making Collier the youngest player to appear in a game.

Regardless of age, the league is tough enough as it is, featuring top Division I players from around the country in addition to it being the first time many players use a wood bat.

“I do think when you’re that young and competing against 23-year-olds, which he’s getting ready to do at the pro level very quickly, you do have to want it a little bit worse, you’ve got to go after it,” Roberts said.

Collier’s season at Chipola ended May 13 and he arrived on the Cape the first week of June to get to work again. He had to leave for about a week to attend the MLB Draft combine in San Diego, but came right back to Cotuit afterward, playing through the end of June before leaving to begin draft preparation.

It was a short stint, but again, he packed a lot of learning into the small time frame. In nine games, Collier went 5-for-23 with six walks and six strikeouts.

“Probably the most impressive part is his plate discipline,” Roberts said. “The opening game at Chatham he faced a really good left-handed pitcher and he was batting ninth. I DH’d him the first day and he got curveball, curveball and he didn’t flinch. That’s pretty unusual. To be a real MLB prospect you do need to be someone that can handle quality left-handed pitching and a lot of young hitters today, lefties, struggle with that.”

The quality of competition on the Cape was superior to anything he’d faced to that point in his career. That he held his own against players two to four years older than him impressed those around him.

“Down here since we have a lot of lefties in our lineup, it’s just facing high-quality left-handed pitching, throwing hard with breaking balls,” Collier said. “But really just facing lefty and righty pitchers that have more than one pitch and can spot it really well, hitters that can turn on balls down the line, so getting used to that (defensively). And getting used to a faster game, these guys are older and better.”

The 6-foot-2, 210-pound Collier has room to fill out, but even while trying to show what he can do as a very young player in the Cape League, Roberts noticed Collier hasn’t tried to do too much like some players who might be trying to prove themselves.

“He doesn’t try to hit the ball out of the ballpark all the time, which I think a lot of young hitters would try to do to impress people witnessing batting practice or the game,” Roberts said. “He really tries to do a great job of being balanced at the plate, putting the ball in play, knowing when to take a bigger swing and when to cut the swing down. Again that shows a lot of offensive maturity.”

Collier is an offense-first player, but has played third base the last few years after pitching a bit in high school and playing shortstop and the outfield when he was younger. The defensive details will come, but it was certainly one area of focus for Roberts in his limited time with Collier.

“I think the area that needs the most improvement is his footwork and his glove angle at third base,” Roberts said. “Those are the areas that almost all young infielders need a lot of work on. His arm can play with anybody. When he decides he wants to throw it across the infield, look out, it goes across the infield really well.”

Roberts also pointed to base running as another area they worked on with Collier, how to get a jump and read a pitcher. Soaking in as much instruction as possible has been a theme for Collier the last few years as he positions himself for the draft.

“It’s been life-changing,” Collier said. “Especially here on the Cape facing older guys, who are older than junior college guys, more experienced. It’s been really eye-opening and something that I think will shape my career as I keep playing and something I’ll always have in my back pocket to say I’ve been there, knowing that it built my skill set to where it is.”

(Photo of Collier at Chipola: Mike Janes / Four Seam Images via AP)