If the Drew Waters Trade Was a Picollo Special, Royals Need More of Them
"I tend to be a little bit more, along with other people in our office, a little bit more aggressive."
The above quote is J.J. Picollo, currently serving in his first season as the general manager of the Kansas City Royals, describing his philosophy as the 2022 MLB trade deadline approaches. The term transactional has been used quite liberally in Royals-related conversations ever since Dayton Moore (president of baseball operations) used it heading into the 2021 campaign. Those two worlds — aggressiveness and being transactional — collided on Monday when Kansas City sent its Competitive Balance Round A pick in the upcoming MLB Draft (35th overall) to the Atlanta Braves in exchange for a prospect package headlined by outfielder Drew Waters.
If that was a Picollo special, it could be a sign of good things to come for the Royals.
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Let's start things off with the centerpiece of the deal. Waters, the former top prospect in the Braves' farm system, is a former top-100 prospect in all of baseball. He possesses all the tools to be a plus defender in center field, as well as a threat on the basepaths. At the plate, he's hitting just .246 at the Triple-A level this year but posted a double-digit walk rate as recently as last season and slashed a very healthy .319/.366/.481 in Double-A as recently as 2019.
There's a bit of raw power and plenty of hit-tool upside to tap into, even with his strikeout problems to this point in his minor league career. Still just 23 years old, there's ample time for Waters to figure things out at the plate. What better person to help Waters figure things out than another Drew? Drew Saylor, the Royals' hitting coordinator, is a budding star in his field and has played a significant role in the revamping and advancement of Kansas City's hitting programs at the minor league level. Picollo is betting on Saylor and company being able to turn things around for Waters but if there's one group of people within the Royals organization to bet on doing that, it's them.
Waters isn't the only interesting prospect coming to the Royals in the trade, though. Andrew Hoffmann, a 2021 12th-round pick by Atlanta, has been flat-out dominant in High-A this year. In addition to boasting a 7-2 record, his 2.36 ERA and 10.13 K/9 make him a promising player capable of filling up the strike zone regularly. He appears to have a bit more room to grow into his 6-foot-5, 210-pound frame as well, which would take his ceiling from back-of-the-rotation starter to perhaps something a bit better. A quick look at the Royals' big-league rotation reveals how inconsistent things have been, so adding an arm like Hoffmann's doesn't hurt. As he heads to Double-A Northwest Arkansas, he does so as a legitimate prospect rather than just a throw-in.
Even CJ Alexander, who will soon be 26 years old, adds a little bit of intrigue to the haul for pick No. 35. His power potential is shining through in 68 games at the Double-A level this year in the form of 15 home runs and a .207 ISO, and he also has the ability to be a threat on the basepaths. If Alexander can continue to hone in on maintaining his low strikeout rate, he could become more than an overlooked addition to the trade.
Take a look back at Competitive Balance picks since they were instituted. There are plenty of misses on the behalf of teams, signaling that the Royals nailing their selection would've been far from a guarantee this year. Instead of taking that singular risk, Picollo gave the Royals a few swings at the proverbial piñata. He armed the club with a high-upside and (recently) high-profile outfielder with tools, a projectable pitching prospect and a wild-card corner infielder with some speed and pop.
That is the type of aggressive and transactional move that smart teams should always make when given the opportunity to do so. The next few weeks will be one of Picollo's first major tests as a general manager but if this is any indication, a clear passing grade could be in the cards soon.