The Astros announced Monday that star shortstop Jeremy Peña has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to a “small” fracture in one of his left ribs. The team has not yet provided a timetable for Peña’s expected return. A corresponding move will not be announced until later in the day, the team added.
Peña was hit with a pitch in the ribs by Cubs rookie Cade Horton this past Friday. He exited the game, but initial x-rays came back negative. Peña was out of the lineup both Saturday and Sunday, and he was clearly still feeling discomfort, as the Astros indicated that follow-up MRI and CT scans were performed, which revealed the fracture.
It’s an awful injury for the Astros. Peña is enjoying a full-fledged breakout this year, turning in a performance that could well make him an American League MVP finalist. The 27-year-old shortstop is hitting .322/.378/.489 with 11 home runs, 18 doubles, a triple and 15 steals (in 17 tries) — all while playing plus defense at shortstop. FanGraphs ranks him third in the majors with 4.1 wins above replacement, tied with Shohei Ohtani and trailing only Aaron Judge and Cal Raleigh. Baseball-Reference has Peña tied with Raleigh for second in baseball, behind only Judge.
Peña’s breakout has in part been fueled by some good fortune on balls in play (.360 BABIP, up from .308 in his three prior seasons), but that’s only part of the tale. He’s upped his walk rate, and while it’s still below league average, his 5.7% mark is a notable improvement over last year’s paltry 3.8% clip. His 15.7% strikeout rate is down from last year’s 17.1% mark. Peña’s batted-ball profile doesn’t necessarily look all that different upon first glance, but while his overall average exit velocity is nearly unchanged from 2024, his exit velocity on balls hit in the air. specifically, is up nearly three miles per hour. Statcast’s “expected” metrics still feel there’s some regression in store, but there are tangible changes to his underlying statistical profile that suggest he’s not simply going to fade back to his pedestrian offense from 2022-24.
Replacing the type of production Peña has provided simply isn’t feasible. Mauricio Dubón has stepped up at shortstop over the past couple days and can at least be expected to provide solid glovework, but he’s a career .259/.294/.379 hitter who’s batting .239/.278/.390 in 2025. Prospect Brice Matthews, Houston’s pick at No. 28 overall in the 2023 draft, is currently in Triple-A and slashing .285/.403/.492 with a huge 15.4% walk rate but also a weighty 28.5% strikeout rate.
Matthews is not yet on the 40-man roster and wouldn’t need to be added this winter to protect him from the Rule 5 draft, but his performance nonetheless puts him in the conversation for a look with Peña shelved. Presumably, the longer Peña is expected to miss, the more seriously the organization would consider Matthews an option to step in for him. Alternative options within the organization who have some shortstop experience include Shay Whitcomb (already on the 40-man roster), Zack Short and Greg Jones. Neither Short nor Jones is on the 40-man, however. Whitcomb has barely played shortstop in 2025 but does have a bit more than 1800 career professional innings at the position.
Sucks
next man up
If it were Tampa would be next manatee up
Premium comment
It’s why you shell out an add’l $3.99/mo
$2.50. He overpaid.
In 3, 2, 1,…
“Pitcher should be suspended for as long as batter is injured” lectures.
No doubt, it really sucks. Hopefully Whitcomb will get a chance.
I hope not.
Duly noted
Already has bWAR of 4.6, that’s really good considering we’re about halfway through the season.
From bWAR to bwahahaha
Dana Brown can’t talk without lying
Isn’t that true, to some extent, with all of us though?
…or am I lying?
Unfortunately, every GM lies.
As the great television Doctor Gregory House used to say: Everybody lies
I would guess Brice Matthews comes up
Probably best to rub some dirt on it and get back in the game. That’s what my coach always told me to do.
Naturally
No surprise as they announced on the broadcast yesterday he just had a bruise so in Astro lingo that is broken ribs and will be put on the 10 day IL but not returning till 2027. Next man up…Dubon will start and the team will pick up some stiff just released by the Pirates and turn him into an Allstar bench player
I don’t know how their organization specifically can be so strange about injuries. I don’t think any club is more secretive, and in the past few years they’ve had a Mr. Bean-level track record of botching player diagnosis and recovery.
“I don’t know…botching player diagnosis”…I know, right. I’ve never understood why sports and baseball teams don’t consult the medical geniuses in the MLBTRADERUMORS comments sections.
I mean, most of us have seen the player’s medical reports, imaging results, MRIs, patient interviews and lab test results right?
Calm down man. I don’t act like I’m good at medical analysis. I said I don’t understand how *that* organization seems so different than the *other* organizations, and has gotten the poor results on high-profile recent cases: Alvarez, Tucker, and some of their arm injuries. I don’t need to see Peña’s MRIs to be able to make that comment.
“Calm down man”..Could you criticize a mechanic without inspecting or driving the car? A barber without seeing the haircut? A chef without seeing or tasting the food?
Dana Brown definitely has earned his reputation on discussing injuries, but this situation seems fairly understandable. Pena got hit Friday, got an x-ray which was negative, still had issues so got more detailed imaging (an MRI, which they wouldn’t have gotten right away) that revealed a small fracture. That sort of thing happens a lot. X-rays can only detect so much. It’s not so much botching the diagnosis as having to go through the process, in contrast to the Alvarez situation, which seems really strange.
I’ll follow your analogy then and suppose, for instance, that there’s a mechanic keeps on churning out vehicles that blow head gaskets within 500 miles of leaving the shop, or he never itemizes his service costs, or he never sends out updates to customers when they’ve waited weeks for their vehicles, and no other mechanic does this. You would probably be justified to ask why that mechanic’s body of work is so different than the others in his area that don’t have those problems if they’re all working on similar makes and models, right? That is all I was trying to do. And yeah, I did suggest calming down. No need for sarcasm and all that. It isn’t that serious.
Yeah, I don’t get the sarcasm stuff. Brown has definitely earned his rep., and it makes people raise their eyes at even normal injury reporting and turnarounds, which this one more closely resembles.
Strange hill to die on, they are notorious for bungling injuries and being coy about them.
If someone told me they saw a mechanic for an engine issue and then the engine exploded the next day, yes, I’d criticize the mechanic. Same idea as what’s happened here.
Mlb fan- all you need to do is look at his comments and yours and you’ll see that people agree with him, and not you. Hope this helps!
I have. He might be back Tuesday.
Tucker broken bone missed for over half a season, Yordan broken bone in hand and they had him swinging a bat before they decided to do more imaging, JP France they brought back too early and he reinjured his shoulder, by thier own admission. They have 3 pitchers with TJ and Garcia’s going on 2 years recovery. So yeah, they either lie or incompetent.
I think that’s pretty insulting to Mr. Bean. He would have bumbled his way into at least a few successful/accurate diagnoses
Who’s stepping up? Don’t expect them to go with the ex-Angels guy long term…
Who hit him?
Well played. I got it right away.
Did you hear it?
Its in the article
This antiquated, unjust treatment of HBP that result in lost time injury needs to be addressed by MLB. The frequency of HBP in MLB is something that needs to be addressed by MLB. Too many batters are being hit. People are being hurt. Careers are being placed in jeopardy.
Any pitcher who hits a batter and that results in lost time injury should be suspended from play and remain so until such time that the injured player is able to resume full MLB activities..
The team of the injured batter loses the services of that player.
What about the pitcher who caused the injury? What about his team?
“OOPS SORRY, Well, That’s Just Part of the Game”.
Just not enough in today’s MLB environment.
Shut up, Jacksson13.
I’m all for protecting players, but messing with a pitcher’s confidence in pitching inside doesn’t seem good for game balance.
Told ya!
Haha you’re joking right? This was an accident, pitch ran more than intended not something malicious.
What do you want, a machine to pitch? The game is going to get boring and stupid if every pitcher is afraid to pitch inside for fear of a 6 week suspension.
Just part of the game. Nothing can–or will–be done to change this any time soon, guaranteed.
Karma.
For what?
One day, in the not-too-distant future, analytics (specifically, spin rate, release point, grip position, etc) will be analyzed in a split second and tell everyone whether a pitch “slipped” or was aimed.
If the AI that tackles that can read a pitcher’s mind for intent and not hallucinate, no innocent party will suffer.
Except for the hitter every single time …regardless of which way that interpretation goes
I’ve never seen a professional group that was so incompetent at reading images.
… Jeremy. Turn your back to the pitch. We learned that in Little League. I’m shocked YOU didn’t learn it on your way to the Bigs.
The problem is so many batters are “cheating” for the 95+ fastball. They’re essentially halfway through their swing by the time they realize the ball is running too far in and that’s why we see so many hand/wrist/rib HBPs with right handed batters.
Cubs pitcher broke cronenworth rib also .
Yes, he’s got nasty stuff that can be hard to control. The pitch that hit him was a cutter that never stopped cutting.
Perhaps the cubs “pitching lab” teaches this ?
That stinks! Pena was having his best season yet.
Yordan had a “small” fracture in his hand
He’s been out for 2 months & counting
they should call up jesus bastides
Dubon is a more than adequate alternative defensively, and the rest of the bats will manage.
Eager to see what Mathews can do though
Astros will keep winning and keep going with a lousy farm system…
It’s amazing. Astros to the World Series. It almost defies explanation given Crane and the people who have been in their front office for the past few years. Some ridiculously bad signings. No problem. We’re the Astros.
It’s called karma. This good fortune is due to them staying quiet, while taking the fall for the league.
Whitcomb called up according to Ari Alexander!
Man! Same thing that happened last year with Ketel Marte (and on the pitching side with Hunter Greene)…players having awesome MVP (Cy Young) type years getting hurt (obviously Ohtani was taking MVP last year tho regardless but Pena is up there this year).
He was a good third round pick by the Astros
Just making sure the comment works.
I hope Zach Short gets another shot. I really liked him in Detroit.