Royals Designate Drew Waters For Assignment

The Royals designated outfielder Drew Waters for assignment as they finalized their Opening Day roster this afternoon. He’s out of options and did not make the team. Kansas City filled the open 40-man roster spot by selecting the contract of righty reliever Eli Morgan, though he was optioned to Triple-A Omaha and will not break camp.

Kansas City placed three players on the injured list. Reliever James McArthur (recovery from 2025 elbow surgery) and swingman Stephen Kolek (left oblique strain) go on the 15-day IL. Second baseman Michael Massey (left calf strain) hits the 10-day injured list. Those placements are retroactive to March 22. Massey was the only borderline case of the three. His absence means infielder Nick Loftin and center fielder Tyler Tolbert join Lane Thomas and Starling Marte on the season-opening bench.

Waters, a former second-round pick of the Braves, has played parts of four seasons with Kansas City. The 27-year-old has a .234/.300/.369 slash line while striking out 31% of the time in just under 700 career plate appearances. He batted .188 with one home run across 16 games this spring. Waters is an average runner who can play all three outfield spots. His defensive grades in center field have been fine but unexceptional, not enough to overcome the limited production at the plate.

Tolbert also has a modest offensive ceiling, but he’s a plus athlete who’s better suited to make an impact as a defensive replacement or pinch runner. He also has a couple minor league options remaining, so the Royals could send him or Loftin down once Massey is healthy. The Royals will trade Waters or, more likely, run him through waivers within the next five days.

Morgan signed a minor league deal in January. The 29-year-old had a strong camp, tossing 10 1/3 innings of one-run ball with 12 strikeouts. Morgan doesn’t throw hard but has an excellent changeup that helped him find success early in his career with the Guardians. His declining strikeout rate led the Guards to trade him to the Cubs last year. Morgan was rocked over seven appearances before going down with an elbow impingement that knocked him out for the remainder of the season. The Cubs non-tendered him in November.

Kansas City didn’t have room for Morgan on the Opening Day roster. They would have needed to jettison one of the out-of-options Alex Lange or Bailey Falter or demote lefty Daniel Lynch IV, whose velocity has ticked up this spring. They’ll keep Morgan in the organization by taking advantage of his remaining minor league option year. It’s likely that Morgan’s deal had some kind of upward mobility or opt-out clause that otherwise would have allowed him to explore other opportunities.

That also seems to be the case for veteran reliever Héctor Neris, who was in camp as a minor league signee. The MLB.com transaction log indicates he was released over the weekend once the Royals decided he wouldn’t break camp. Neris failed to record a strikeout while giving up 11 runs over 6 1/3 innings this spring.