Royals Designate Drew Waters For Assignment

Drew Waters’ latest stint with the Royals will last only a day. Kansas City announced Wednesday that Waters, whose contract was selected to the major league roster yesterday, has been designated for assignment to clear space for infielder Michael Massey’s return from the injured list. The 27-year-old Waters was on the roster last night but didn’t get into the game. He’s yet to play in the big leagues this season and will now head to waivers for the second time this season. Kansas City also designated Waters for assignment prior to Opening Day. He went unclaimed then and was outrighted to Triple-A Omaha. That was his first career outright assignment. Because he has that prior outright, he can elect free agency if he goes unclaimed this time around. Waters was a second-round pick by Atlanta in 2017 and was considered one of the system’s top prospects for a few years. The Braves traded him to the Royals four years ago, and he hasn’t ever found his footing in the big leagues. The switch-hitter has shown some pop and speed, smacking 14 homers and swiping 21 bags in 684 major league plate appearances. However, he’s fanned at a 31.1% clip and hasn’t walked enough or played strong enough defense to carve out much staying power. Waters is a career .234/.300/.369 hitter (84 wRC+) who has graded out slightly better than average in the corners but below-average in center. The 2026 season down in Triple-A hasn’t been a great one, either. Waters has again showed a power/speed blend (12 homers, 17 steals) but is batting .251/.312/.420 with an 8% walk rate and 25.2% strikeout rate. Offense is up throughout Minor League Baseball this year, and by measure of wRC+ that batting line clocks in about 15% worse than average in the Triple-A International League. As for the 28-year-old Massey, he’s spent the past week on MLB’s seven-day concussion list. He’s been Kansas City’s primary second baseman this season and has had a nice season, mixing good defense (+8 Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average alike) with slightly above-average production at the dish. In 110 games and 366 plate appearances, Massey has posted a .276/.310/.444 line (106 wRC+) with 11 homers, 22 doubles, a triple, two steals, a 5.2% walk rate and a 16.9% ground-ball rate. That walk rate is well shy of the league-average 8.9%, but his strikeout rate is also a far sight better than the MLB average 22.1%. View Comments (1)