May 19, 2026 • 10 mins
Tuesday on The A-Team, Astros infielder Braden Shewmake joined Adam Clanton and Adam Wexler to discuss how his trade to Houston unfolded, his strong start at the plate, his past college matchup with Joey Loperfido, and much more.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
On the eighteen Tuesday afternoon. Astros Baseball coming your way
this evening. Adam Wexler and Adam Clanton here with you
and happy to be joined by Astros infielder Braden Shoemake.
Appreciate you making some time for us and our listeners
this afternoon in advance of tonight's game. Certainly, one of
the questions I knew needed to be asked is having
come over to the Astros organization in April, have you
(00:22):
had a chance to have family and friends make the
two hundred and sixty one mile drive from Wiley to
Houston to see you play at dyk In Park.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Yeah, I've had quite a bit, a bit of family,
my wife's family from up in Melissa as well. We
got some family in the Houston area too, So it's
been good. It's been good to be a lot closer
to home, be able to see some familiar faces and
continue to play well.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
So from Wiley to Aggie Land to several stops in
the Major leagues, nowhere near Houston, and then the Astros
acquire you in trade from the Yankees. Dana Brown, who
drafted was part of the group that drafted you there
in Atlanta, you get to come back to this organization,
this area. What was first thought when you heard about
you had just been traded to the Astros.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yeah, I kind of came out of nowhere. It was.
I was getting ready to play a Sunday game and Syracuse,
New York and got that phone call. And I didn't
really know what to think at the time. I didn't
know where I was going, what I was doing, but
obviously was excited. My parents were excited when I talked
to them. My wife was sleeping, so she didn't get
to find out so in the morning, but everybody was happy.
Everybody's excited, and they said I was. I was ready
(01:27):
for a fresh start at a place like this.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Was Was there any scenario pardon for me my attempt
at comedy? Was there any attempt or possibility that there
would just be a note left by her head?
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Sorry?
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Hun traded to Astros see as soon?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Yeah, well we were. We were on the road, so
I went there. She was at home with my two boys,
so I called her. I called her eight times.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
She didn't answer any So is that like when when
she forgets her phone after she's giving you a list
at the grocery store. You've probably seen them mean by now, yeah,
I mean, but that's herm Anyway, when the time you
go to bed, she puts her phone across the room.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
I tell her all the time, like, if somebody needs
to get in touch with you, you're gonna have to
have that. But she's like, Nah, nobody needed to call
me on sleep.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
The only part that is when they do that, and
then they also don't they don't plug it into charge it,
and then they complain about how their batteries low. At
least that's my wife.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
All this, Yeah, it happens everywhere.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Hey, uh, growing up in Wiley, did you did you
root for the Astros when you were when you were
a kiddo?
Speaker 2 (02:30):
When I was young young, Actually most of my family
we had some Aster of fans, but most of my
family were Ranger fans. So like, as a young kid,
probably up until high school, that's who I kind of
was following. But once I got into high school and
into college, I didn't really follow them or a specific
team too much.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
When you consider the path to Houston, where you've clearly
now with the Astros this last roughly month or so,
you've got a real opportunity to play nearly every single day,
Like you've played multiple positions, which obviously you've shown the
ability to do so throughout your professional career, but making
these stops, being a former first round pick, having so
much success in college station with Texas A and M.
(03:14):
You know, as things have turned out, how do you
visualize how do you kind of rationalize how your professional
career has gone as you now arrive here as an
almost everyday player with the Astros.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Yeah, it's been it's been a while, and it's been
a crazy, crazy ride, you know, trying to obviously get
to the big leagues and stick is the hardest part.
Everybody always said getting there is not the hard part,
it's staying. And I didn't necessarily know that how true
that was until I got my first taste. And that's
absolutely the case. You got to perform every day. You
(03:46):
got to you know, every day is a new day,
but you got to come in and help the team win,
whether it's with that or with the glove, well, on
the basis, you got to do something to help the
team win. And so, yeah, it's been a crazy right,
it's been a wild one. But I wouldn't I wouldn't
change it. It brought me here I'm super excited about that.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
You mentioned the leather. It's got to be fantastic to
have not one, but two amazing guys that play your
primary position that you can talk to in Carlos Koreer
and Jeremy Paigne. Has that been something you've been able
to take advantage of?
Speaker 2 (04:21):
How's that?
Speaker 3 (04:22):
How's that gone?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Both those guys are are pretty easy going guys.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
I would assume, Oh, yeah, there, both of them are fantastic.
I've gotten I mean I really obviously, until Carlos had
gone down, I got to spend a lot of time
taking ground balls with him and picking his brain on
things that he likes to do out there. And then
with Jeremy as well. He's been around, i mean with
(04:46):
a fan probably the last couple of weeks, taking ground
balls and stuff with this before he went on that
rehab assignment. So gotten to pick his brain too, and
just trying to figure out a little nuances of playing
the position that that make them so good at it.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Talking with Braid schum Astro's infielder here on Sports Talk
seven ninety of the other infielder and he's rarely referred
to as that Jose Altuve Uh. Steve Sparks, Astros radio broadcaster,
was on the station yesterday talking about how it's quote
unquote his clubhouse and that's why the belief is that
so many new players are able to come in here
and often thrive and certainly enjoy their time here. I'm
(05:21):
just curious about how that had played out for you
once you arrived here and had a chance to talk
with Jose al Tuve or have him, you know, come
talk to you just about you know, being an Astro.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Yeah, Jose is the one of a kind guy. Obviously,
he said that he's a great clubhouse guy. Carlos is
another great clubhouse guy. We have a bunch of that
in that locker room, a bunch of guys that believe
in each other and want nothing but the best, nothing
but the best for each other. So they made it
really easy to kind of come in and be yourself.
(05:54):
Don't have to do any more or be any less
of who you are, Just be yourself and you could
fit in pretty easily here.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
We were actually talking about that very thing on yesterday's show,
because after Spencer Arraghetti start on Friday, he was kind
of unprompted and talked about the clubhouse atmosphere how it is.
I mean, there's tons of vets in there, whether they're
healthy right now or not. And how you guys do
have that belief in each other. I mean it's got
to obviously it sounds cliche, but carry you at a
(06:24):
difficult time in the season like this, where things just
don't seem like they're going your way more often than not.
But I mean, I believe that he sounded very sincere
about it, and it seems like that's the kind of
clubhouse would Did you agree with his comments when you
saw them.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Yeah, we have full confidence in every one of the
guys that we roll out there on the mound. Every
guy that gets into the box or is making a
play in the field, le a full confidence and everybody
in that clubhouse this is like I said, it's a
great group. Not only a great group of guys, but
they're really good play players in that clubhouse. So it
makes it a lot of fun to go to were
(07:00):
with every day. And yeah, I mean maybe the thinks
haven't done how we wanted them too yet, but this
clubhouse is really good. The players in it are really
good players.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
One of the other players in the clubhouse, upon your arrival,
and then he almost immediately was on the IL. I'm
sure your passive cross. He's been around enough, but you know,
I thought this was the case, so I went and
looked it up to make sure. When you wrapped up
your college career with Texas A and M, it was
June second of twenty nineteen. You were the leadoff hitter
for Texas A and M. And in that game which
(07:30):
in the postseason, which ended your season, you lost to Duke,
and the leadoff hitter in that game was second baseman
Joey lo Berfito.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Has that come up at all? Oh, yeah, we've talked
about it. We've talked about it. They got it. They
didn't just end our season. They got us twice in
every jew.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
This is something that again for how good that season
was for you and your team, and how good that
team was. I imagine, even though you knew what was
coming in your professional future, probably that had to sting.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Right now.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
You see him roaming around this clubhouse you're in.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Yeah. No, I mean, anytime your season ends the things
for sure. But look they out they out played us
most times we played him. We played a ruler the
day before night of the day before earlier that day,
and you know, we hit a walk off your ane
slam to beat West Virginia at their own place, and
then turned around and played them, and we kind of
felt like we kind of ran out of gas as
(08:24):
a team, and they took advantage of that and they
played good ball. So there's only so much you can do.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Bitter is not the word here, but there's something there,
the very heavy sigh, like if you you guys need
to like have a talk about this.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
I think we've talked about it. Oh, we've talked about it,
but we laughed about it because it was obviously I
think the thing we were laughing about more than anything
is that he was playing in the infield. Now he's
a fantastic outfielders guy. I could do it all.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Give us a little thought quickly on the on field stuff.
We haven't gotten into that a whole lot before we
let you go. What you've been able to, you know,
get in the lineup almost immediately with some any openings
and injuries, but you've taken advantage of that opportunity. What
do you think about how you've performed offensively? Is anything
changed with your approach? Have you learned anything from the
group you're working with here, because you've obviously had the
success that's kept you on the lineup most every day.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Yeah, I mean, obviously this with our coaching is our staff.
They've kind of put together plan and stuff to go
in with each guy and where we're hunting, what we're doing,
we're looking for how we're going to attack certain pictures
and and then just fine tuned swings and trying to
be short and quick to the ball as you can,
which I felt like I did well there for a while,
(09:37):
and of the last three or four days, I've kind
of gotten out of my approach and done some things
and run myself into a little bit of trouble, which
is stuff that's completely fixable. So that's also something that's
encouraging as well, knowing that you're doing it to myself.
So yeah, I mean it's been fun. Said I'm trying
to just help this team win anyway, don't care what
(10:01):
that way is, whether it's coming off the venture, whether
it's starting games. I tried to make that very clear, Joe, like,
whatever whatever you need me to do to help this
team win, I'm fully brought into that well.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Break and we certainly have enjoyed your time here about
a month now here as a Houston astro, look forward
to more of it. Look forward to a chance of
getting to talk to you out in person at the
ballpark soon and glad our listeners had a chance to
get to know you a little bit here this afternoon.
Appreciate the time and enjoy the game tonight
On the eighteen Tuesday afternoon. Astros Baseball coming your way
this evening. Adam Wexler and Adam Clanton here with you
and happy to be joined by Astros infielder Braden Shoemake.
Appreciate you making some time for us and our listeners
this afternoon in advance of tonight's game. Certainly, one of
the questions I knew needed to be asked is having
come over to the Astros organization in April, have you
(00:22):
had a chance to have family and friends make the
two hundred and sixty one mile drive from Wiley to
Houston to see you play at dyk In Park.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Yeah, I've had quite a bit, a bit of family,
my wife's family from up in Melissa as well. We
got some family in the Houston area too, So it's
been good. It's been good to be a lot closer
to home, be able to see some familiar faces and
continue to play well.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
So from Wiley to Aggie Land to several stops in
the Major leagues, nowhere near Houston, and then the Astros
acquire you in trade from the Yankees. Dana Brown, who
drafted was part of the group that drafted you there
in Atlanta, you get to come back to this organization,
this area. What was first thought when you heard about
you had just been traded to the Astros.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yeah, I kind of came out of nowhere. It was.
I was getting ready to play a Sunday game and Syracuse,
New York and got that phone call. And I didn't
really know what to think at the time. I didn't
know where I was going, what I was doing, but
obviously was excited. My parents were excited when I talked
to them. My wife was sleeping, so she didn't get
to find out so in the morning, but everybody was happy.
Everybody's excited, and they said I was. I was ready
(01:27):
for a fresh start at a place like this.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Was Was there any scenario pardon for me my attempt
at comedy? Was there any attempt or possibility that there
would just be a note left by her head?
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Sorry?
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Hun traded to Astros see as soon?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Yeah, well we were. We were on the road, so
I went there. She was at home with my two boys,
so I called her. I called her eight times.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
She didn't answer any So is that like when when
she forgets her phone after she's giving you a list
at the grocery store. You've probably seen them mean by now, yeah,
I mean, but that's herm Anyway, when the time you
go to bed, she puts her phone across the room.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
I tell her all the time, like, if somebody needs
to get in touch with you, you're gonna have to
have that. But she's like, Nah, nobody needed to call
me on sleep.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
The only part that is when they do that, and
then they also don't they don't plug it into charge it,
and then they complain about how their batteries low. At
least that's my wife.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
All this, Yeah, it happens everywhere.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Hey, uh, growing up in Wiley, did you did you
root for the Astros when you were when you were
a kiddo?
Speaker 2 (02:30):
When I was young young, Actually most of my family
we had some Aster of fans, but most of my
family were Ranger fans. So like, as a young kid,
probably up until high school, that's who I kind of
was following. But once I got into high school and
into college, I didn't really follow them or a specific
team too much.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
When you consider the path to Houston, where you've clearly
now with the Astros this last roughly month or so,
you've got a real opportunity to play nearly every single day,
Like you've played multiple positions, which obviously you've shown the
ability to do so throughout your professional career, but making
these stops, being a former first round pick, having so
much success in college station with Texas A and M.
(03:14):
You know, as things have turned out, how do you
visualize how do you kind of rationalize how your professional
career has gone as you now arrive here as an
almost everyday player with the Astros.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Yeah, it's been it's been a while, and it's been
a crazy, crazy ride, you know, trying to obviously get
to the big leagues and stick is the hardest part.
Everybody always said getting there is not the hard part,
it's staying. And I didn't necessarily know that how true
that was until I got my first taste. And that's
absolutely the case. You got to perform every day. You
(03:46):
got to you know, every day is a new day,
but you got to come in and help the team win,
whether it's with that or with the glove, well, on
the basis, you got to do something to help the
team win. And so, yeah, it's been a crazy right,
it's been a wild one. But I wouldn't I wouldn't
change it. It brought me here I'm super excited about that.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
You mentioned the leather. It's got to be fantastic to
have not one, but two amazing guys that play your
primary position that you can talk to in Carlos Koreer
and Jeremy Paigne. Has that been something you've been able
to take advantage of?
Speaker 2 (04:21):
How's that?
Speaker 3 (04:22):
How's that gone?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Both those guys are are pretty easy going guys.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
I would assume, Oh, yeah, there, both of them are fantastic.
I've gotten I mean I really obviously, until Carlos had
gone down, I got to spend a lot of time
taking ground balls with him and picking his brain on
things that he likes to do out there. And then
with Jeremy as well. He's been around, i mean with
(04:46):
a fan probably the last couple of weeks, taking ground
balls and stuff with this before he went on that
rehab assignment. So gotten to pick his brain too, and
just trying to figure out a little nuances of playing
the position that that make them so good at it.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Talking with Braid schum Astro's infielder here on Sports Talk
seven ninety of the other infielder and he's rarely referred
to as that Jose Altuve Uh. Steve Sparks, Astros radio broadcaster,
was on the station yesterday talking about how it's quote
unquote his clubhouse and that's why the belief is that
so many new players are able to come in here
and often thrive and certainly enjoy their time here. I'm
(05:21):
just curious about how that had played out for you
once you arrived here and had a chance to talk
with Jose al Tuve or have him, you know, come
talk to you just about you know, being an Astro.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Yeah, Jose is the one of a kind guy. Obviously,
he said that he's a great clubhouse guy. Carlos is
another great clubhouse guy. We have a bunch of that
in that locker room, a bunch of guys that believe
in each other and want nothing but the best, nothing
but the best for each other. So they made it
really easy to kind of come in and be yourself.
(05:54):
Don't have to do any more or be any less
of who you are, Just be yourself and you could
fit in pretty easily here.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
We were actually talking about that very thing on yesterday's show,
because after Spencer Arraghetti start on Friday, he was kind
of unprompted and talked about the clubhouse atmosphere how it is.
I mean, there's tons of vets in there, whether they're
healthy right now or not. And how you guys do
have that belief in each other. I mean it's got
to obviously it sounds cliche, but carry you at a
(06:24):
difficult time in the season like this, where things just
don't seem like they're going your way more often than not.
But I mean, I believe that he sounded very sincere
about it, and it seems like that's the kind of
clubhouse would Did you agree with his comments when you
saw them.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Yeah, we have full confidence in every one of the
guys that we roll out there on the mound. Every
guy that gets into the box or is making a
play in the field, le a full confidence and everybody
in that clubhouse this is like I said, it's a
great group. Not only a great group of guys, but
they're really good play players in that clubhouse. So it
makes it a lot of fun to go to were
(07:00):
with every day. And yeah, I mean maybe the thinks
haven't done how we wanted them too yet, but this
clubhouse is really good. The players in it are really
good players.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
One of the other players in the clubhouse, upon your arrival,
and then he almost immediately was on the IL. I'm
sure your passive cross. He's been around enough, but you know,
I thought this was the case, so I went and
looked it up to make sure. When you wrapped up
your college career with Texas A and M, it was
June second of twenty nineteen. You were the leadoff hitter
for Texas A and M. And in that game which
(07:30):
in the postseason, which ended your season, you lost to Duke,
and the leadoff hitter in that game was second baseman
Joey lo Berfito.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Has that come up at all? Oh, yeah, we've talked
about it. We've talked about it. They got it. They
didn't just end our season. They got us twice in
every jew.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
This is something that again for how good that season
was for you and your team, and how good that
team was. I imagine, even though you knew what was
coming in your professional future, probably that had to sting.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Right now.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
You see him roaming around this clubhouse you're in.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Yeah. No, I mean, anytime your season ends the things
for sure. But look they out they out played us
most times we played him. We played a ruler the
day before night of the day before earlier that day,
and you know, we hit a walk off your ane
slam to beat West Virginia at their own place, and
then turned around and played them, and we kind of
felt like we kind of ran out of gas as
(08:24):
a team, and they took advantage of that and they
played good ball. So there's only so much you can do.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Bitter is not the word here, but there's something there,
the very heavy sigh, like if you you guys need
to like have a talk about this.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
I think we've talked about it. Oh, we've talked about it,
but we laughed about it because it was obviously I
think the thing we were laughing about more than anything
is that he was playing in the infield. Now he's
a fantastic outfielders guy. I could do it all.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Give us a little thought quickly on the on field stuff.
We haven't gotten into that a whole lot before we
let you go. What you've been able to, you know,
get in the lineup almost immediately with some any openings
and injuries, but you've taken advantage of that opportunity. What
do you think about how you've performed offensively? Is anything
changed with your approach? Have you learned anything from the
group you're working with here, because you've obviously had the
success that's kept you on the lineup most every day.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Yeah, I mean, obviously this with our coaching is our staff.
They've kind of put together plan and stuff to go
in with each guy and where we're hunting, what we're doing,
we're looking for how we're going to attack certain pictures
and and then just fine tuned swings and trying to
be short and quick to the ball as you can,
which I felt like I did well there for a while,
(09:37):
and of the last three or four days, I've kind
of gotten out of my approach and done some things
and run myself into a little bit of trouble, which
is stuff that's completely fixable. So that's also something that's
encouraging as well, knowing that you're doing it to myself.
So yeah, I mean it's been fun. Said I'm trying
to just help this team win anyway, don't care what
(10:01):
that way is, whether it's coming off the venture, whether
it's starting games. I tried to make that very clear, Joe, like,
whatever whatever you need me to do to help this
team win, I'm fully brought into that well.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Break and we certainly have enjoyed your time here about
a month now here as a Houston astro, look forward
to more of it. Look forward to a chance of
getting to talk to you out in person at the
ballpark soon and glad our listeners had a chance to
get to know you a little bit here this afternoon.
Appreciate the time and enjoy the game tonight
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