Astros should play it safe with Jeremy Pena and the reasons why are obvious

Jeremy Peña's inclusion on the Houston Astros Opening Day roster is the last piece of the puzzle. He did nothing to hurt his chances during Tuesday night's exhibition game against the Sugar Land Space Cowboys. Peña went 1-for-4 with a home run and two RBI.

Peña's been dealing with a small fracture on the tip of his right ring finger that he suffered during a tuneup for the World Baseball Classic. The injury forced Peña out of the WBC and he's been rehabbing at the Astros' spring facility in Florida for the past few weeks.

Astros fans have every reason to believe that Peña will open the season on the active roster. But is it really necessary? Though he may be healthy, Peña's missed a lot of time this spring, and that inability to ramp could hurt his start to the season. Houston would be wise to just play it safe and place Peña on the 10-day IL to begin the year, and there's a myriad of reasons why.

Astros should place Jeremy Peña on the IL to begin the 2026 season

Peña has 11 spring at-bats to his name. Yes, he got in a few extra swings on Tuesday night against Triple-A caliber pitching, but it's going to take a lot more than that to get his timing down. Most players who spent a prolonged time on the IL need a tuneup in the minor leagues before returning to the active roster, and some extra time in the cage or back at the team's complex couldn't hurt.

The Astros are also opening the season against the Angels...is there anything more to be said than that. The Halos are expected to be one of the worst teams in the league this season, and if Houston's lineup is so bad that they need Peña in the lineup in order to win that series, the Astros have much bigger problems than fans might think.

Furthermore, MLB rules allow the Astros to backdate Peña's IL stint to March 22, meaning he'd only miss six games — four of which against the aforementioned Angels — before being eligible to return to the roster on April 1 against the Boston Red Sox.

Finally, this would be a fantastic opportunity for young Astros prospect Brice Matthews to log some meaningful time at shortstop. Houston has sent Matthews out to the diamond as an outfielder this spring, but his primary position coming up through the minors has always been at short. Matthews posted an .817 OPS in 36 at-bats this spring, and Houston might want to gauge what they have in the youngster.

Is it wrong for Houston to add Peña to the Opening Day roster? No, not at all. But for all those reasons given, there's little need to risk poor performance or further injury at this stage of the season.