Jeremy Pena Fractures His Finger; What This Means For The Astros

Not even a few weeks until the start of the regular season and the Houston Astros are already dealing with a position player injury. All-Star shortstop Jeremy Pena suffered a fractured finger while fielding a ground ball in an exhibition game between the Dominican Republic Team and the Detroit Tigers on Wednesday.

As ever tailor-made as it should have been, at the last second before Pena fielded it in his glove, it took a bad hop and struck the fingertip on his throwing arm. On video, Pena is seen briefly inspecting it a few times. He was taken out of the game after striking out in his at-bat shortly thereafter.

Pena To Miss At Least Round One Of WBC

The All-Star shortstop had a breakout year in 2025 and was expected to play an integral part as the starting shortstop for Team DR in the upcoming World Baseball Classic. He is expected to miss at least the first round. No official severity on the injury is announced, which may or may not impact his availability to start opening day on the regular season.

However, if things are a turn for the worse, losing Pena for the start of the Astros regular season brings a familiar setback they faced last season: A litany of injuries dealt to their core, a prime factor in missing the playoffs.

Silver Lining If Pena Goes On IL

Yet, there is a silver lining to this worst case scenario. Throughout this off-season, trade rumors have constantly circled around infielder Isaac Paredes. Teams in the Boston Red Sox and Pittsburgh Pirates were in deep talks to acquire the Astros once primary third basemen. 2025 saw him earn is second consecutive All-Star nod, with a .254/.352/.458 slash line mashing 20 homers and a 123 OPS+.

Once he went down with a torn hamstring, Houston pulled the trigger and reunited with Carlos Correa in an attempt to replace a weapon they had to stay competitive. The Astros ended up missing the playoffs, and soon, ailing questions pertained to how the team would retain Paredes in the future after Correa took his spot at the hot corner.

Fast-forward to spring training and Paredes has still yet to be traded. MLB media reporters such as Ken Rosenthal and others are still expecting him to end up elsewhere to avoid potential issues in the clubhouse. According to Rosenthal, getting rid of the "infield logjam," and give ample playing time to its veterans is the best course of action for the Astros.

Paredes Has A Reason To Stay

Looking at it from a different point of view, you could call it "depth," with more capable weapons to use if one goes down. The Astros have been dealt a bad hand on the injury side over the years and having solid depth to prevent the injuries from drastically hurting the team helps them in the short run.

Houston suddenly has a clear reason to keep Paredes on the roster if Pena ends up on the IL. Losing a Gold Glove caliber shortstop and the 2022 World Series MVP isn't something a team can easily replace, but therein lies the silver lining.

What This Means For Houston

If Pena is out for an extended period of time, the answer to this lost piece would be to slide Correa to his natural position at shortstop, put Paredes at third, keep Jose Altuve at second and Christian Walker at first base. Boom, problem solved on the short term.. An infield consisting of viable veterans who can hit and defend adequately and have the accolades to show for it. When the time comes if Pena is activated off the IL, of course, the logjam issue reemerges. But the Astros can better address that later with some regular season games under their belt.