Atlanta Braves Trade Drew Waters to Kansas City for Draft Pick

Once thought of as among the top prospects in all of baseball, the Atlanta Braves have traded Drew Waters for a draft pick. 

At the end of the 2020 season, the Atlanta Braves top two prospects according to MLB Pipeline were Cristian Pache and Drew Waters.

Now neither one of them are in the system as both have been traded within the last five months.

On Monday it was announced that the Atlanta Braves are trading Drew Waters, Andrew Hoffman, and CJ Alexander to the Kansas City Royals for the 35th overall pick in the upcoming MLB Draft.

Many Braves dreamed of an outfield with Waters, Pache, and Ronald Acuna Jr.

But quite frankly, both Pache and Waters stalled offensively once they got to Triple-A and Michael Harris blew by both of them.

With Harris and Acuna as locks in the Braves outfield for years to come, Waters became expendable and it’s not surprising to see him get moved.

Waters is still just 23 years old and has five-tool potential if he ever reaches his ceiling. Hopefully for him, that happens in Kansas City.

But the nearly 30 percent strikeout rate over parts of three seasons at Triple-A is alarming.

Hoffman is a 22-year-old right-handed starting pitcher who was having a breakout season at High-A Rome where he had a 2.36 ERA and 1.050 WHIP in 80 innings with 90 strikeouts.

The Braves have a ton of pitching depth in their system, but it was still surprising to see them move such a valuable pitching asset in this deal.

Alexander was a former 20th-round pick who had struggled for most of his minor league career but was having a solid season at Double-AA Mississippi slashing .258/.294/.465 with 15 home runs in 271 at-bats.

As for what the Braves received in this trade, the true value won’t be determined for years to come.

We’ll have another article on the site diving into the specifics of what this means for the upcoming draft.

There is no question the Atlanta farm system has been depleted and is in major need of being overhauled. This is a clear attempt to make that happen.