Yankees trade for Wilmy Sanchez from Astros by sending away former 1st-round pick originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

The New York Yankees and Houston Astros made a trade before Sunday's action began across MLB.

Coming to the Yankees: a minor league right-handed pitcher named Wilmy Sanchez.

They're sending Braden Shewmake back to Houston.

The New York Yankees today announced that they have acquired minor league right-handed pitcher Wilmy Sanchez from the Houston Astros in exchange for INF Braden Shewmake.

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Sanchez is a 22-year old righty from the Dominican Republic.

He has made five appearances so far this season at Double-A Corpus Christi and has a 1.29 ERA with eight strikeouts in seven innings.

Last year in Double-A, Sanchez had a 6.05 ERA, although he did strike out 75 guys in 61 innings. The problem was that he also walked 51.

If Sanchez can improve on his minor league average of 5.9 walks per nine innings while maintaining his career 11.8 strikeouts per nine ratio, he's got a chance to be an MLB contributor in a bullpen.

Shewmake is a 28-year old journeyman infield with 68 career MLB at bats (.118 average). He was a first-round pick by the Braves in 2019 but has never quite panned out through Atlanta's organization and on to the White Sox and Yankees.

So far this season, Shewmake was batting .250 with two doubles at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

This is one of those trades that may never really matter, but it's at least an intriguing bet by the Yankees on a young arm.

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