The Kansas City Royals have traded the 35th overall pick in Sunday’s Major League Baseball draft for a trio of Atlanta Braves minor-league players.
Atlanta included its top prospect, center fielder Drew Waters, in the trade, which the Royals announced Monday. ESPN’s Jeff Passan was first to report about the deal.
Right-handed pitcher Andrew Hoffmann and Double-A infielder C.J. Alexander are also headed to Kansas City in exchange for the Royals’ second first-round pick. The 35th overall pick is a competitive-balance pick, which MLB allows to be traded.
Waters was put on the Royals’ 40-man roster and optioned to Triple-A Omaha. Hoffmann and Alexander are being assigned to Double-A Northwest Arkansas.
MLB Pipeline has rated Waters, who was selected by Atlanta in the second round of the 2017 Draft, as the Braves’ No. 1 prospect, although he is not part of the top 100 in all of baseball. Waters played in last year’s Futures Game.
Waters, 23, batted . 246 with seven doubles, five triples and three home runs in 49 games at Triple-A Gwinnett.
FanGraphs listed Waters as the Braves’ 10th-best prospect.
“Waters’ long speed, athleticism and arm strength allow him to make the occasional spectacular defensive play, while his hands and balls skills are more of a mixed bag,” FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen wrote. “His toolset is similar to that of a diluted Aaron Hicks (without the plate discipline), and Kevin Pillar’s batting line provides a fair look at what Waters’ might look like if he played every day, though he does not play defense at Pillar’s level. Most contemporary fourth outfielders are really just part of a platoon somewhere and tend to come from the part of the prospect pool with more stable hit tools. Instead Waters feels like an abnormally dangerous fifth outfielder.”
Hoffmann, 22 is the Braves’ No. 23 prospect per MLB Pipeline. In 15 starts this season at High-A Rome, Hoffmann is 7-2 with a 2.36 ERA in 80.0 innings pitched. He has 90 strikeouts and 21 walks. Hoffmann was chosen in the 12th round of last year’s draft.
“Hoffmann already looks like a high-probability back-of-the-rotation starter less than a year after he was a Day Three pick,” wrote Longenhagen, who had Hoffmann as the Braves’ No. 16 prospect.
Alexander, 25, was a 20th-round selection in the 2018 MLB Draft. At Double-A Mississippi, Alexander batted .258 with 15 home runs, 43 RBIs and 13 stolen bases in 68 games.