Drew Waters

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Andrew David Waters

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Biographical Information[edit]

Drew Waters was on Team USA before making his major league debut in 2022.

Waters hit .510 and slugged over 1.000 as a high school senior as his team won the state title. [1] He was the Atlanta Braves' second-round pick in the 2017 amateur draft after they took Kyle Wright in round one. The scout was Dustin Evans. [2] The center fielder split the summer between the GCL Braves (.347/.448/.571 in 14 G) and Danville Braves (.255/.331/.383 in 36 G). Baseball America rated him as the #9 prospect in the Appalachian League, between teammates Kyle Muller and William Contreras. [3]

He split 2018 between the Rome Braves (.303/.353/.513 in 84 G) and Florida Fire Frogs (.268/.316/.374 in 30 G). For the year, he had 72 runs, 39 doubles, 9 triples and 23 steals in 28 tries. Two negatives were 8 errors and 29 walks. He tied Cole Freeman and Ryan Kirby for 6th in the South Atlantic League with 32 doubles. He joined Seuly Matias and Casey Golden as the SAL All-Star outfielders. Baseball America rated him as the league's #3 prospect (behind D.L. Hall and Luis Garcia). [4] They also rated him the best defensive outfielder in the SAL and the fastest baserunner. [5] He was among the Braves chain leaders in runs (tied for 1st with Rio Ruiz), doubles (1st, 7 ahead of Austin Riley), triples (tied for 1st with Justin Dean), steals (2nd, 4 behind Ray-Patrick Didder) and OPS (3rd among those with 400+ PA, behind Michael Reed and Dean). Baseball America listed him as the 83rd-best prospect in baseball entering 2019.

Waters played in 2019 for the Mississippi Braves (.319/.366/.481 in 108 G) and Gwinnett Stripers (.271/.336/.374 in 26 G). Making AAA at age 20, he finished the year with 80 runs, 40 doubles, 9 triples and 16 steals in 22 tries. He joined Brandon Marsh, Cristian Pache and Pavin Smith as the Southern League All-Star outfielders. He led the SL in average (.018 ahead of Patrick Leonard and Daulton Varsho), doubles (one ahead of Jhoan Urena) and triples (one ahead of Pache and Lucius Fox). He was 3rd in total bases (202, 4 behind leader Varsho), 2nd in OPS (52 behind Varsho), 8th in OBP and 2nd in slugging (.039 behind Varsho, even though he only hit 5 homers for Mississippi). He was named the league's MVP. Baseball America rated him as the SL's #5 prospect, between Sixto Sanchez and Brendan McKay. [6] They also named him the best batting prospect in the loop. [7] The Atlanta native finished among his home town's organizational leaders in runs (80, tied for 3rd with Greg Cullen), hits (163, 1st, 11 ahead of Trey Harris), doubles (40, 1st, 4 ahead of Pache), triples (9, tied for 1st with Pache and Dean), steals (16, 6th) and whiffs (164, 2nd, 5 behind Drew Lugbauer).

He then made the US team for the 2019 Premier 12. His leadoff homer off Rob Cordemans was the first hit of the tournament (after the Dutch national team went down 1-2-3 in the top of the 1st). He went 0 for 8 the rest of the event, though, and was relegated to the role of defensive sub in center as Jo Adell, Brent Rooker and Mark Payton got the bulk of the action in the outfield. Oddly, for a contact hitter without much home run punch, his lone hit had been a dinger. In the Bronze Medal Game, with a spot in the 2020 Olympics at stake, he came in as the center fielder in the 7th, Adell moving to LF and Payton to RF as Rooker left the game. Waters got to the plate in the 10th with two in scoring position and one out and was intentionally walked by Carlos Bustamante but was stranded and the US lost in the bottom of the inning. [8]

After sitting out the 2020 season when the minor leagues were shut down by the Coronavirus pandemic, he spent all of 2021 in AAA with Gwinnett, where he hit .240/.329/.381 with 11 homers and 37 RBIs in 103 games, numbers that were a bit of a disappointment after his performance in 2019. He was a member of the National League team at the 2021 Futures Game. In 2022, he played 49 games with Gwinnett and 3 more on a rehabilitation assignment with the Rome Braves before he was traded to the Kansas City Royals on July 11th. He was hitting .253 at the time and had risen to be the #1 prospect in the Braves system. However, he was packaged along with two other minor leaguers, Andrew Hoffmann and C.J. Alexander, in return for the #35 overall pick in the 2022 amateur draft. He made his major league debut with the Royals on August 22nd, starting in right field against the Chicago White Sox. He went 0 for 3 but drove in the go-ahead run in a 6-4 win by drawing a bases loaded walk in the 8th inning.

Notable Achievements[edit]

Sources[edit]

  1. ↑ 2019 Braves Media Guide, pg. 223
  2. ↑ ibid.
  3. ↑ 2018 Baseball Almanac, pg. 392
  4. ↑ 2019 Baseball Almanac, pg. 386
  5. ↑ ibid., pg. 400
  6. ↑ 2020 Baseball Almanac, pg. 390
  7. ↑ ibid., pg. 416
  8. ↑ 2019 Premier 12

Further Reading[edit]

  • Pete Grathoff (Kansas City Star): "Kansas City Royals receive Atlanta Braves’ No. 1 prospect and two others in a trade", Yahoo! News, July 11, 2022. [1]

Related Sites[edit]

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