Testing in on former Braves top potential

In July 2022, the Braves made a surprising move, trading one of their best prospects, Drew Waters, to the Kansas City Royals for the 35th choice in the MLB draft.

With the Braves, Waters became a consensus top 100 prospect, with several sites ranking him well inside the top 50. Previously, many considered the Waters/Acuña/Pache outfield to be the best in baseball for years. In the end, only Acuña was able to join the Braves team. Pache was traded to the Athletics for Matt Olson, and Waters to the Royals for the 35th pick, which later became JR Ritchie.

Who knows what Ritchie will be, given that he is still 20 years old and recovering from Tommy John surgery, but what about Waters?

Since the trade, Waters has moved from MLB to AAA. He started his career with Kansas City on fire in 2022, with an.803 OPS in 32 games, but his success waned the next year. He played 98 games for the Royals last season and had a.677 OPS, so Waters started this year in AAA and is off to a fast start. Through 11 games, he’s hitting.326 with six extra-base hits, including one home run, and an OPS of.931.

Drew Waters, 25, is facing a make-or-break year. The Royals are a young baseball team that will need to find long-term players. Waters can either become one, or he’ll have to wait patiently for his chance and risk falling into the category of a AAAA player, someone who’s too excellent for AAA but not quite good enough to carve out a permanent niche for himself at the big league level.