Former Braves first-round pick may be saving his career with Astros

If you are unable to recall when the Houston Astros added Braden Shewmake, you are forgiven. The former Braves first-round pick from 2019 has had a pretty unremarkable career to this point, other than his supernatural ability to avoid getting DFA'd by the Yankees and surviving roster move after roster move. When the Astros traded for Shewmake back in April, no one really batted an eye.

However, the partnership between Houston and Shewmake is off to a pretty great start. While Shewmake's bat was a huge question mark coming in, the guy has always been a capable defender, and at least has more offensive upside than Nick Allen. It certainly hasn't hurt that Shewmake has been hitting since the Astros brought him up, including a key homer off of Shohei Ohtani on Tuesday.

In fact, Shewmake seems to be on track to turn his career around and carve a real role in the majors, although it probably isn't the role he envisioned for himself when he turned pro.

Braden Shewmake may be able to parlay his successful Astros stint into a more stable MLB role

Just to head this off at the pass, the odds that Shewmake will ever become an everyday player are still very low. Yes, he has looked good with the Astros so far, but we are talking about an extremely small seven-game sample here. However, what he is showing is that he can play multiple defensive positions well and can actually do some damage if he needs to hit.

While Shewmake was probably hoping to end up as an everyday shortstop when he was drafted, that isn't really on the table. However, that doesn't mean he can't become a high-quality bench utility infielder. On certain teams and/or if he can continue to produce in the opportunities he gets, it wouldn't be that crazy to see him turn into a super utility infielder that plays a few times a week.

Is that a sexy outcome for Shewmake? Absolutely not, but that doesn't mean this can't work out well for Shewmake. It is hard to carve out any sort of consistent role in the majors, but Shewmake is showing the tools and ability to be a quality and versatile backup. Given where he was coming into this season, that has to be good enough.

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