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

Eric Cole

Apr 24, 2026; Houston, Texas, USA; Houston Astros shortstop Braden Shewmake (28) hits a solo home run in the in the seventh inning against the New York Yankees at Daikin Park. Mandatory Credit: Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images / Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images

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.

Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.