Royals call up Drew Waters, put Mark Canha on injured list

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Kansas City Royals recalled OF Drew Waters from Triple-A Omaha on Wednesday to replace OF Mark Canha, who was placed on the 10-day injured list with a left abductor strain.

Canha was injured in Tuesday's 2-1 victory over the Minnesota Twins when he crashed into the wall in left center. Canha stayed in the game for the remainder of the inning but then asked to be taken out.

Kansas City manager Matt Quatraro is hopeful that Canha's stint on the IL is a short one.

“It's a mild strain,” Quatraro said. “So we’re hopeful that it’s 10 days, maybe just a hair more than that. But you have to see how the first couple days go.”

Waters was hitting .370 with Omaha and was named the International League player of the week for March 31-April 6, during which he hit for the first cycle of his professional career.

Waters has appeared in 137 games over his three seasons with the Royals, with a career-high 98 games in 2023. He appeared in just seven games in 2024. He's hoping that his early season success in Omaha will lead to the opportunity to finally stick with the major league club.

“Honestly, I've just been trying to compete, trying to stay locked in,” he said. "It’s hard in minor league games when it’s freezing cold and there’s 30 fans out there, but I've just been treating every at-bat like it matters and living with the results.

"Anytime you have an opportunity to come up and play a game at a big league level, that’s a lot of trust and a lot of faith that a team is putting in to you, and so to have that opportunity is definitely special.

“Just knowing that I’m a good baseball player and that I’m capable of having success, I think that’s what keeps everybody hungry.”

___

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb