Braves trade details: Atlanta dishes top prospect to Royals in bizarre move

By Mark Powell | Jul 11, 2022

NORTH PORT, FL - FEBRUARY 23: Drew Waters #81 of the Atlanta Braves bats during the Spring Training game against the Detroit Tigers at CoolToday Park on February 23, 2020 in North Port, Florida. The Tigers defeated the Braves 5-1. (Photo by Mark Cunningham/MLB Photos via Getty Images) /

The Atlanta Braves traded top prospect Drew Waters to the Kansas City Royals for a draft pick.

The argument for this trade is that Waters likely wasn’t going to get much playing time in Atlanta, as outfield prospect Michael Harris II has been tearing it up at the big-league level. Add in Ronald Acuña, and Waters was overkill.

However, the deal makes a ton of sense for the Royals. Andrew Benintendi could be on the way out at the deadline, and Waters could slide right in as a near-MLB ready replacement.

Atlanta and Kansas City are finalizing a trade that will send center-field prospect Drew Waters, right-handed pitching prospect Andrew Hoffmann and a third minor leaguer to the Royals for the 35th pick in Sunday's draft, which has a $2.2 million slot value, sources tell ESPN.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) July 11, 2022

In exchange, Kansas City gave up a second-round pick in this year’s draft, something that is legal since the selection was a competitive-balance-round pick, per Jeff Passan.

Here are the full trade details:

Braves prospect rankings: Drew Waters

The Braves clearly like Harris II, and have some outfield prospects in mind for this year’s draft. With the bonus money, they can go over slot value, rather than being stuck with the 19th-highest valuation.

Before the trade, the Braves had the 19th-highest bonus pool for the draft. The $2.2 million slot for the 35th pick moves them up to 10th in overall money, with $10.2 million. The Orioles have the most money to spend at $16.9 million, followed by the Diamondbacks and the Mets.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) July 11, 2022

Atlanta viewed Waters as overkill, which due to their crowded outfield makes some semblance of sense. Money is a powerful drug in the MLB Draft, and can determine exactly how talented of player a team selects.

For an organization like Atlanta, which very much values growing players internally, that’s everything. Surely, there is a plan at play.

Next. Braves: 3 trade deadline targets from surprise sellers. dark

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