What the hell did the Braves just do?

It appears that the Atlanta Braves are moving on from Drew Waters in a reported trade with the Kansas City Royals

According to Jeff Passan, the Atlanta Braves are sending prospects outfielder Drew Waters and pitcher Andrew Hoffman to Kansas City for the 35th pick in the upcoming draft.

This move could be shocking to some, because not only is a trade involving draft picks rare in MLB, but Drew Waters has been a top tier prospect for the Atlanta Braves for a few years.

Rarely do we see a trade like this because traditional draft picks cannot be traded. This pick was a competitive balance draft pick, so it was eligible to be traded. It should also be noted that it has a slot value of 2.2 million dollars.

Why did the Atlanta Braves trade Drew Waters?

We can only make assumptions on what actually happened behind the scenes, because Alex Anthopoulos is notoriously tight lipped.

However, there is a reason this trade makes sense. From a business standpoint, what a player brings to a team has value that is constantly in flux. Drew Waters’ value has started to fall recently, and he is seemingly blocked with the plethora outfielders the Braves have under contract for years to come.

Waters is primarily a center fielder, which is where a lot of his value comes into play, especially since his bat is not developing as some may have hoped. Michael Harris appears to have center field on lock, and with Ronald Acuña Jr, Eddie Rosario, and Marcell Ozuna in the mix for outfield spots multiple years to come, Waters is blocked.

With a slash line of .246/.305/.411 and 57 strikeouts to only 16 walks, Waters still has some development to achieve offensively.

Being drafted 41st overall in 2017, Waters has been steadily dropping down the prospect rankings every year since 2020. Waters was ranked all the way up at No. 22 in 2022, but then he dropped to 79 in 2021, and now has dropped out of the top 100.

As sad as it is to say, sometimes it is best to just cut your losses. It does seem odd that Alex Anthopoulos did not trade Waters for a player that can help now. However, this could actually be indicative of how much Waters’ value has actually dropped.

Anthopoulos could absolutely have something up his sleeve that this trade is just leading to something else. Time will tell, but even if that is not the case, it is better to get some value out of a trade then to wait for the value to drop even more than it already has.

At the end of the day, The Braves traded a 41st overall picked player with dropping value and a player drafted in the 12th round (Andrew Hoffmann), for a 35th pick in the upcoming draft. It is unusual trade for a win-now team, but not a bad one.