Yankees trade 2025's greatest riddle to Astros for another reclamation project

Back in February, the New York Yankees put an unofficial end to a situation fans have long questioned over the last calendar year. They designated shortstop Braden Shewmake for assignment to clear up a 40-man roster spot.

On Sunday, they officially ended it. Shewmake was traded to the Houston Astros in exchange for pitcher Wilmy Sanchez. Shewmake remained with the Yankees after clearing waivers in February and was outrighted to Triple-A for the last 2.5 months.

Still, that didn't stop fans from wondering why he was here. He occupied a 40-man spot for the entirety of 2025 and never appeared in the big leagues, despite the Yankees badly requiring space for flexibility.

It was even more puzzling why they waited until the brink of spring training to remove him, too. Shewmake was bad at Scranton (.244 AVG, .680 OPS) last year and was producing more of the same through 10 games in 2026. There was never any use for him, even if New York dealt with an unthinkable injury situation.

The Astros, on the other hand, could use the depth with star slugger Jeremy Peña on the injured list. Turns out they probably shouldn't have let Mauricio Dubon depart in the offseason because now they are getting the Yankees' scraps.

Yankees finally part with Braden Shewmake and hope for pitching depth assistance

And, well, the Yankees are getting the Astros' scraps ... though Sanchez seems to have much more value to New York than Shewmake will for Houston.

The right-hander, who was signed out of the Dominican Republic back in 2022, has serious command issues, but good strikeout numbers. He also rarely ever surrenders home runs. It doesn't hurt that he's only 22 years old.

That said, the Yankees are taking on yet another reclamation relief project, which fans are — to put it nicely — extremely sick of. Everyone's witnessing that strategy blow up in the team's face with Camilo Doval, Jake Bird, Angel Chivilli and others in 2026. Not to mention, there's still lingering frustration over Clay Holmes, Mark Leiter Jr., Jonathan Loaisiga, Ian Hamilton and more, as they were too heavily relied upon despite inconsistent results and incessant injuries.

If we were to properly caution everybody, we'd say not to expect anything out of Sanchez, even though the early returns at Double-A have been promising. He still has a long way to go, but perhaps his arrival means there's about to be some bullpen shuffling in the coming weeks (some Triple-A guys up to the bigs and Double-A guys to fill in the gaps at Scranton?).

At the very least, Shewmake is no longer our concern. It only took a year and a half.

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