Royals 26-Year-Old Gets Real About 'Pressure' Of Hanging Onto MLB Roster Spot
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Drew Waters is hoping this opportunity in the big leagues is the one that sticks.
Since making his major league debut in 2022, Royals has been recalled five times by the Kansas City Royals. Coming into the 2025 season, he'd never had lasting success at the major league level, but he's seizing this fifth opportunity so far.
Through 15 games, Waters is slashing .280/.321/.480, with a home run and five RBI. He scored the winning run on Friday in the Royals' series-opening win over the Houston Astros, and he's helping to bring some stability to what has been the worst outfield in the majors this year.
Waters lost the competition to make the big-league roster out of spring training, and it took an injury to Mark Canha to get him to the majors this time. But now, it appears he has a longer runway, thanks to MJ Melendez being optioned to Triple-A last week, and he's running with it.
Recently, the 26-year-old Waters opened up about his feelings on trying to stick in the big leagues this time after his up-and-down journey in the Kansas City organization.
“I wouldn’t say there was more added pressure [this time], necessarily,” Waters said, per MLB.com's Jackson Stone. “I’ve been in the big leagues. I’ve been down. I’ve been back. I’ve been down. I’ve made that cycle a lot, so, I don’t know, I think this time around I’m more mature than I was two years ago. Or even last year.
"I just think I looked at it as -- well, you can either go out and play well and stay, or you can go back to what you’ve been doing. When you kind of look at it that black and white, it can take some pressure off of you.”
Waters is getting a relatively equal dose of all three outfield positions, as the Royals try to figure out a winning combination. He's probably best suited to a corner spot defensively, but that puts even more pressure on him to keep hitting enough to justify his spot in the lineup.
It will be a fantastic story for the Royals if Waters can hold down a starting spot all season. But he knows as well as anyone that it's not an easy thing to do.
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Jackson Roberts is a former Division III All-Region DH who now writes and talks about sports for a living. A Bay Area native and a graduate of Swarthmore College and the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, Jackson makes his home in North Jersey. He grew up rooting for the Red Sox, Patriots, and Warriors, and he recently added the Devils to his sports fandom mosaic. For all business/marketing inquiries regarding "Kansas City Royals On SI," please reach out to Scott Neville: scott@wtfsports.org
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