Despite being a liability in the infield, his prowess on the basepaths earned him a promotion to the AAA Syracuse Chiefs where he was moved to second base in an attempt to alleviate his fielding woes.

In order to satisfy the Rule 5 terms, the Astros were mandated to either keep Yelding on the major league club for the entire season or forfeit their rights to him.

The Astros' patience with Yelding paid early dividends, as he became their full-time leadoff hitter in 1990 and finished second in the National League with 64 stolen bases.

Although his fielding had greatly improved since his early days with the Astros (with two errors in 32 games at second base in 1993), he struggled with the bat, hitting .204.

He missed a large part of the 1993 season due to injury, as well as the following year, in which he appeared in 29 games with the Iowa Cubs.