[新聞] acquire Drew Waters for #35
The Royals also acquire pitcher Andrew Hoffman and third baseman C.J.
Alexander.
By Max Rieper Jul 11, 2022, 11:17am EDT
The Royals are finalizing a trade to acquire center field prospect Drew
Waters, minor league pitcher Andrew Hoffman, and third baseman C.J. Alexander
from the Braves for the 35th pick in the July draft, according to ESPN’s
Jeff Passan. MLB Pipeline ranks the 23-year-old Waters as the #1 prospect in
the Braves farm system, while Baseball America ranks him #5, and Fangraphs
ranks him #10. He was a consensus top 50 prospect in all of baseball before
the 2021 season when he had a disappointing performance that got him left off
lists this year. In 49 games for Triple-A Gwinnett this year, Waters was
hitting .246/.305/.393 with five home runs.
Waters is a switch-hitter originally drafted in the second round of the 2017
draft out of high school in Georgia. He was named Southern League MVP in 2019
after hitting .319/.366/.481 at Double-A and appeared in the Futures Game
that summer. He is a five-tool player who doesn’t grade outstanding at any
one tool, but doesn’t grade poorly in any tool either. MLB Pipeline writes
he is an “aggressive hitter, one who swings and misses a good amount, with
plenty of raw power he still is learning to get to.” Fangraphs raises red
flags about that aggressiveness, writing that “upper-level pitching has
exploited his free-swinging approach” and continues to “chase pitches that
he either misses or that limit the quality of his contact.” He has cut his
strikeout rate in a third season at Triple-A this year down to 27 percent,
although his walk rate has also dropped to 7.6 percent.
The 22-year-old Andrew Hoffman is a right-handed pitcher selected in the 12th
round of the 2021 draft out of the University of Illinois. In 15 starts for
High-A Rome he had a 2.36 EAR with 90 strikeouts and 21 walks in 80 innings
pitched. MLB Pipeline ranks him as the #23 prospect in the system, writing he
is a “strike-thrower” who throws in the low-90s, noting his deceptive
delivery. They add that “both of his secondary offerings flash above-average
and can miss bats, with a slider that typically sits low-80s and shows tight
spin and a solid fading low-80s changeup.”
C.J. Alexander is a left-handed hitting third baseman who was selected in the
20th round of the 2018 draft out of State College of Florida,
Manatee-Sarasota. The 25-year-old was hitting .258/.294/.465 with 15 home
runs in 68 games for Double-A Mississippi. He does not walk much, but can run
a bit with 14 steals in 15 attempts last year, and 13 swipes already this
year.
The Royals will give up the 35th pick in the draft, their competitive balance
pick to the Braves, which has a slot value of $2.2 million. Competitive
balance picks, which are awarded to lower revenue clubs, are the only draft
picks teams can trade.
Waters seems to have very good power for a switch-hitter, but it will be up
to the Royals to develop him to have enough contact to be a threat at the
Major League level. They are pretty thin on outfield prospects at the higher
level, and Waters can compete for the starting centerfield job next year.
This could also be a signal that the Royals intend to move outfielder Michael
A. Taylor, who is signed through next year and has been enjoying a
career-best season at the plate.
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