The Yankees have traded infielder Braden Shewmake to the Astros. Minor league right-hander Wilmy Sanchez is heading to New York in the deal. Both teams have announced the swap.
The Astros have also placed Joey Loperfido on the IL. The move was expected after the outfielder left Friday’s game with a quad injury. Right-hander Jayden Murray was recalled to take Loperfido’s spot. The Astros had been rolling with 12 pitchers, but will now be back to a more traditional 13-man staff.
Shewmake could provide some infield depth to a Houston squad missing multiple shortstops. Jeremy Pena is on the IL with a hamstring injury. Nick Allen left with back spasms on Friday. He’s yet to return to the lineup. Shewmake would be an option to get called up if Allen is forced to the IL.
The Astros are Shewmake’s fourth organization since the start of 2025. After getting designated for assignment by the White Sox, he was claimed by the Royals. Kansas City DFAed him shortly after, and he was scooped up by the Yankees. Shewmake posted an 82 wRC+ in 72 games with New York’s Triple-A affiliate last season. He hit .250 with a couple of doubles and a stolen base in 10 games with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre this year.
Sanchez came to Houston as an international free agent in 2022. He steadily worked his way up the system, with generally solid results at each stop. After splitting time as a starter and reliever to begin his pro career, Sanchez transitioned to the bullpen full-time in 2024. He notched a 3.50 ERA across 54 innings between Single-A and High-A. Sanchez pushed his strikeout rate up to 33.9% in his first year as strictly a reliever.
The 2025 campaign was a rough one for Sanchez. He made the jump to Double-A and stumbled to a 6.05 ERA in 46 appearances. After working around some control issues at previous levels, Sanchez’s walk rate spiked to a career-worst 17.5% with Corpus Christi. He’s trimmed that number back to 14.8% through five Double-A outings this year. The results have improved, as Sanchez has allowed just one run over seven innings.
Photo courtesy of Jim Rassol, Imagn Images
Bullpen problems solved!
Beer and Baseball.. perfect together!
Don’t forget the yayo!
Does Wilmy throw smoke or shewmake?
Ok.
Well he adds almost nothing a sub .700 OPS in AAA but I guess depth never hurts.
Him and Keoni Cavaco are the same player. Both horrible first round picks in 2019 draft. Cavaco switched to pitching, maybe Shewmake should too because he cant hit.
Sub zero does it again! A triple hit!
Any arm will do.
Dana Brown sees something?
Wasn’t Dana Brown heavily involved in drafting Shewmake in the first place. Dollar cost averaging here.
Cashman wasting his time as once Cole and Rodon return he has no choice but send Weathers and Gil to bullpen and call up Lagrange in July or August cause the bullpen is a disaster in need of power arms who can strike out guys. Warren all but sealed the 5th spot as he too good to go to bullpen. Maybe Yankees can build a pkg around Jones, Gil and Jazz combination to lure a 3B and quality bullpen arm.
I don’t see how this trade has any relevance as it’s a depth trade for both teams. Both Weathers and Doval have minor league options and can be sent down.
so they traded minor league depth for minor league depth that probably wont have any or little factor on the ml roster.
shewmake has the opportunity to make the astros roster due to injuries and probably dfa right after someone gets healthy, at most for the yankees he would have been the same but he has even more ahead of him with i believe volpe back soon
Sanchez is AA and 15% walk rate was an improvement … if he is materially factoring to your major league roster he on some roids or had godly improvement or the yankees went completely off the rails.
Shewmake was probably fifth or sixth on the shortstop depth chart in New York. Maybe the Astros have more playing time available for him at AAA than the Yankees did. Sanchez is a pitcher who strikes guys out, which probably doesn’t mean anything, but relievers are all fake and frequently come from out of nowhere (and return to nowhere), so toss him on the pile.
Interesting trade. The Yanks and Astros are likely at the table discussing a bigger deal for one of Pena or Paredes and this trade happened to come together in the midst of those discussions.
“The Yanks and Astros are likely at the table discussing a bigger deal for one of Pena or Paredes and this trade happened to come together in the midst of those discussions.”
I don’t think Dana Brown is giving up on Pena yet but I could see a Paredes deal coming together (maybe).
Cashman isn’t going to give up yet on McMahon at 3B (nor Anthony Volpe at SS) so there’s no speculation here for a trade for either of those guys. @No ABS in ’27 has me muted for calling out his ridiculousness in the past.
I think the most likely thing that happened is that the Astros were a bit short on middle infield depth with Pena still injured and the Yankees had a number of guys in Scranton who can handle short (but not really hit at all) and Volpe’s impending return made them even more redundant than they were before. So the Astros sent the Yankees a lottery ticket minor league reliever and here we are.
Hell, maybe Shewmake’s agent has been shopping him around, given that there are probably better opportunities for him to get playing time than Scranton. Like, I imagine Paul DeJong’s agent is testing the temperature of the market.
You hit the spot with your comment about the Yankees having “a number of guys in Scranton who can handle short”….in fact this is a Cashman fail as they have way too drafted SS types in the minors rather than other infield positions which is why you have the situation at 3rd with McMahon that they currently have….Cashman seems to think that any SS type player can be moved to other positions around the infield to fill spots….
Literally none of the guys in Scranton who could play short are/were draftees. It’s entirely pure depth guys acquired off waivers (Shewmake), as minor league free agent signings (Ornelas and DeJong), or in a minor trade for a D’dFA player (Schuemann). If you want to include Cabrera, which I don’t as I never want to see him play shortstop if I can help it, that’s a lower dollar IFA who has been a major league utility guy from a number of years and got pushed down because of injury and a crowded big league roster and because he had an option still. Which, that’s what AAA rosters generally look like. Lots of bits and pieces and spare parts and busted prospects.
@ultramod2 that’s a fair assessment. It’s Shewmake-time in Houston anyway you slice it.
Maybe change of scenery? Believe he’s from the area, at least I know he went to A
Are these trades after the player(s) are DFA’d? There’s been more trades than usual for April.
Not even. The Yankees D’d Shewmake FA back in February and got him through waivers. He’s just been hanging around as a part-timer in Scranton and I guess the Astros value him as depth more than the Yankees did.
Jasson Domínguez for Riley O’Brien
Sometimes Shewmake the right trade, but sometimes Shew don’t.
Monkey – If you like the offer, then Shewmake the trade.
It’s really a crapShewt
Mengis2 – Did Shewmake a pun on his name?
Onetime ATL top prospect who’s bouncing around the league. Drafting strategy and player development, ugh.
Sanchez is at least a prospect, since he is pretty young for AA and gets at least decent results. I don’t understand why Houston traded him for a minor-leaguer, since Shewmake has subpar production even at AAA.
Gruß,
BSHH
Proverbial holiday fruitcake that keeps getting passed
That’s the gift that keeps on givin’, Clark
Every time I see this guy’s name I think of Matt Shoemaker.
Yankees absolutely wasted a 40 man spot for almost two years with Shewmake
They got a lottery ticket arm in return for someone who wouldn’t be used in NY unless so many bad things happened that it wouldn’t matter how he played. I’m no Cashman defender but this one is harmless. I’d love to read what you say about some of his other work lol.
One year. He arrived Feb ’25 and was DFA’d in Feb.
Yes yours is the correct take. Sometimes a cigar is in fact just a cigar.
People act like the MLB teams don’t have to construct functional teams for their farm system.
Yanks tanking.
It means Lombard Jr. will be promoted to 3A soon.
Another first round draft pick that got a big bonus and has done nothing to merit it since
Love it.
Braden Shewmake. Hits a Home run on his debut at-bat with the White Sox on the second game of the 24 season after being billed as a central piece of a 5 for 1 deal with the Braves. Sox jump out to a 6-3 lead over the Tigers before losing 7-6 in extras. Sox also lose a 1-0 shutout to Skubal and 3-2 the next day to cap a 3 gm opening series sweep by the Tigers by a total of 3 runs.
Postscript: Braden proceeds to go 7 for 63 the rest of his MLB career after his opening at-bat Homer, his only career HR. Wonder what happened to those 2024 White Sox.
It’s an interesting move by the Yankees, especially bringing in a young arm like Wilmy Sanchez while giving Shewmake a fresh opportunity with the Astros. These kinds of trades may seem small, but they can really shape depth and future potential for both teams. As a fan, it’s always exciting to see how these changes play out over the season. That same connection to the team also shows in everyday style, like wearing a baseball jacket new york yankees, which naturally reflects that pride and loyalty.
take your huckstering elsewhere ok