Active rosters expand from 26 to 28 today and the Royals also had a third spot open due to right-hander John Schreiber getting claimed off waivers by the Yankees yesterday. They filled those three spots by recalling right-hander Nolan Hoffman and Easton McGee, as well as selecting the contract of outfielder Drew Waters.

Waters, 27, played for the Royals from 2022 to 2025. Broadly speaking, he was a light-hitting, glove-first outfielder. He stepped to the plate 684 times over those four seasons with 14 home runs, a subpar 7.6% walk rate and awful 31.1% strikeout rate. He slashed .234/.300/.369 on the whole for a wRC+ of 84.

In his 1,528 1/3 innings in the outfield, he was credited with two Outs Above Average. His minus-three grade from Defensive Runs Saved looks bad but isn’t so egregious with some context. His work in the corners was positive but he was slapped with minus-six DRS in center. Even that center field number is a bit skewed, as he got minus-four in a tiny sample of 89 innings in his 2022 debut season. After that, in over 500 innings, he was barely below average.

Waters exhausted his final option season in 2025, putting him out of options coming into 2026. He was designated for assignment at the end of camp and cleared waivers, allowing him to play for Triple-A Omaha all year so far. His offense has continued to be underwhelming. His .251/.312/.420 line might look decent at first glance but translates to an 85 wRC+, indicating it is 15% below average in the context of the league environment. Even that is propped up by a fairly high .314 batting average on balls in play.

The Royals will likely have Waters as a bench/depth outfielder used for late-game replacement or pinch-running opportunities as they play out the string on the campaign. He could be squeezed off the roster again in the offseason.

Photo courtesy of Jerome Miron, Imagn Images