The Houston Astros will probably be with out certainly one of their high gamers for the foreseeable future. Shortstop Jeremy Peña has been positioned on the 10-day injured record with a small fracture in certainly one of his ribs on the left facet, the Astros introduced Monday. The crew will make a corresponding roster transfer Tuesday, earlier than their collection opener with the Colorado Rockies.
Peña suffered the harm when he was hit by an 89.0 mph changeup from Chicago Cubs righty Cade Horton final Friday. He remained within the recreation and even took one other at-bat earlier than being eliminated. Peña has not performed since. Here is the pitch that brought on the harm:
Peña and the Astros hoped it was a day-to-day harm, however further imaging revealed the fracture. Mauricio Dubón began at shortstop Saturday and Sunday and can probably proceed to be the starter throughout Peña’s absence. Since 2021, the common missed time for a rib fracture has been 33 days, per the Baseball Prospectus Restoration Dashboard.
“From speaking to docs, there’s some NFL gamers that play with this, but it surely’s a pain-tolerance factor,” Astros normal supervisor Dana Brown mentioned Monday, by way of MLB.com. “If he appears like he is high-quality after per week, we’ll begin some baseball exercise. We may give him some issues to do, and he may be capable to play by it because it heals.
“This is not a kind of issues the place you must be sidelined the entire time. As soon as the irritation goes down, he may really feel ok to swing a bat. It is extra how a lot can he tolerate, which suggests he may come again quickly after the ten days. That is why he is on the journey, to get remedy and perhaps, probably get again as quickly as he can.”
This has been a breakout season for the 27-year-old Peña, who’s hitting .322/.378/.489 with 11 dwelling runs and 15 seasons in 82 video games. His 4.6 WAR is already approaching his profession excessive (5.0 WAR in 2022) and is second greatest amongst all gamers, hitters and pitchers, behind solely Aaron Decide’s 5.9 WAR.
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The Astros have been with out slugger Yordan Alvarez a lot of the season. He has not performed since Might 2 due to a hand harm, although he’ll being ramping up his rehab work this week. Nonetheless, the Astros at the moment are down their biggest energy risk in Alvarez and their greatest all-around participant in Peña.
Regardless of the Alvarez harm (and others), the Astros enter play Monday with a 50-34 document and 6 ½ recreation lead within the AL West. Houston has received the final 4 and 7 of the final eight division titles, and are effectively positioned to do it once more this yr.
Peña could be very more likely to be an All-Star subsequent month though he didn’t advance to Section 2 of the fan voting. Both Jacob Wilson (Athletics) or Bobby Witt Jr. (Kansas Metropolis Royals) will begin at shortstop for the American League.
