Royals Place Recent Trade Acquisition On IL, Recall Intriguing 26-Year-Old
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The Kansas City Royals are calling up an outfielder with tantalizing tools, but their reason for doing so isn't exciting.
Mark Canha, who the Royals acquired in a late March trade with the Milwaukee Brewers, is headed to the 10-day injured list after suffering a left abductor strain when crashing into the outfield wall on Tuesday night.
Canha had been off to a fantastic start on offense, posting a 5-for-14 line with two walks and a pair of doubles in seven games. For a slumping Royals offense, he was a considerable loss even though he wasn't in the starting lineup on most nights.
In Canha's place, the Royals will look to an outfielder for whom they once had high hopes in search of a career resurgence.
Kansas City recalled 26-year-old Drew Waters, a switch-hitting former top prospect who first made his Royals and major-league debut in 2022. After being optioned to Triple-A to begin the season, the Royals are hoping Waters can capitalize on a hot start despite a track record of struggling against big-league pitching.
“The goal for any player that goes down to Triple-A is to make us call them back up,” manager Matt Quatraro said, per Anne Rogers of MLB.com. “This happened to be because of an injury. But Drew was producing in the week-plus of Triple-A. If he wasn’t, then maybe it makes it a tougher decision on who does get called up.”
Waters has played 137 games in the majors, slashing .229/.306/.396 and accruing 1.0 rWAR. It's hard to say he's struggled more than some of Kansas City's other mediocre outfielders during this era, but he certainly hasn't earned the right to stick in the majors.
Sometimes, injuries force struggling players to step up. The Royals desperately need another outfielder to start producing at the plate, and maybe Waters can do so at long last.
More MLB: Royals No. 1 Prospect Jac Caglianone Hints At Torpedo Bat Switch, Causes Stir
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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