Former Atlanta Braves top prospect Drew Waters was designated for assignment by the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday, one day after selecting his contract as a September call-up.
The move cleared a roster spot for second baseman Michael Massey, who returned from the injured list. Waters did not appear in a game.
For Atlanta fans, the transaction is another reminder of a prospect path that never quite arrived.
Waters, a switch-hitting outfielder from Etowah High School in Woodstock, was the Braves’ second-round pick in 2017 — 41st overall — and signed for $1.5 million rather than heading to Georgia. As a senior he hit .510 with 15 homers and helped Etowah win a state title. Local kid, tools, speed, arm: he checked every box.
He rose quickly. Waters tore through the lower levels and became a consensus top-100 prospect, ranking as high as No. 2 in Atlanta’s system.
Then the upper minors exposed the swing. Strikeouts climbed. The 2020 lost season didn’t help. By 2022 he was still on the 40-man roster but no longer blocked only by Ronald Acuña Jr. and Michael Harris II; he had stalled at Triple-A Gwinnett.
That July, Atlanta traded Waters, pitcher Andrew Hoffmann, and infielder C.J. Alexander to Kansas City for the 35th overall pick in the 2022 draft. The Braves used it on right-hander JR Ritchie.
Waters made his major-league debut with the Royals a month later and flashed some power in a small sample. It was the high-water mark.
Over parts of four seasons in Kansas City he hit .234/.300/.369 with 14 home runs in 208 games. He can play all three outfield spots and run well enough to be a late-inning piece, but a 31 percent career strikeout rate and modest on-base numbers never let him stick.
He was already designated for assignment once this year, in late March, when he failed to make the Opening Day roster and cleared waivers. A full Triple-A season produced a .251/.312/.420 line that still graded below average. The one-day September stint was depth, not a second act.
From a Braves angle, the trade has aged better than Waters’ career. Ritchie debuted in 2026 and has already given Atlanta 58 big-league innings. Waters, now 27, will likely pass through waivers again.
If he clears, he can reject an outright assignment and become a free agent. Somewhere there is still a club that needs a versatile outfielder who once looked like a five-tool regular.
Atlanta has seen this movie. Not every hometown second-rounder becomes Harris. Some become the cost of adding another high-upside arm. Waters was that cost.
The Royals’ latest DFA just closed another chapter on a prospect who once felt inevitable at Truist Park.
