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While the Houston Astros' pitching staff has been pretty stellar this year, the lineup has been a bit more inconsistent. Yordan Alvarez's hand injury and Christian Walker's rough first half, among other issues, the Astros' offense has been very feast or famine in 2025 and their right-handed heaviness has been exploited at times. One of the few constants has been the play of Jeremy Peña and now the Astros are going to have figure out how to survive without him.
Peña was originally hit by a pitch in the ribs on during Friday's game against the Chicago Cubs. After getting a couple of days off over the weekend, the issue was clearly still bothering him despite getting a negative X-ray initially. Unfortunately, a second scan revealed a broken rib and Peña is headed for the injured list.
Turns out Jeremy Peña does indeed have a fractured rib per the Astros.
— Ari Alexander (@AriA1exander) June 30, 2025
He will be going on the IL.
Astros place Jeremy Peña on injured list with what couldn't be much worse timing
As of now, the timeline of Peña's return is not known. That the Astros couldn't see the break during the first scans gives some hope that it is a relatively minor injury that could heal pretty quickly. However, the issue is clearly causing Peña some real discomfort and between that and the quick-twitch reflexes needed at shortstop may mean that Houston could take their time with him.
The timing of Peña's injury is truly terrible. Not only were the Astros in the middle of solidifying their place at the top of the AL West, but Peña was playing his way into quite the nice payday. Now, Houston will have hope they can keep soldiering on without him, and Peña just has to hope that his time on the shelf doesn't set him back or mess up his timing — which has been spot on in 2025.
If Houston expects this to be a short absence, they may opt for a bandaid solution involving Jose Altuve at second, Mauricio Dubon at short, and just figuring out the outfield based on matchups. However, if it is a longer absence, don't be surprised if top prospect Brice Matthews gets a real look.