The rules of "Big League" were simple: Throw the ball hard off a concrete wall and field the quick bounceback cleanly to earn a point. After all, he'd been perfecting his glovework since his summers growing up in Providence, Rhode Island, where Peña and his older and younger brothers, Austin and Carlos, created a game they called "Big League." WHEN THE ASTROS envisioned Peña taking over for Correa, they imagined a player who would be ready to play elite defense on Day 1. It was a matter of getting the opportunity and taking advantage." I felt like I could do a little bit of everything. "I felt confident in my abilities," Peña said. He's trying to play his game and leave his legacy."Īnd while Peña's performance catapulted him into the Rookie of the Year conversation, his poise allowed him not just to replace a franchise player, but to come through in October. His only focus was just to be Jeremy and he's stuck with that the whole year. "He understood how good Carlos has been and what he meant to every single person in here. He said that from day one," teammate Alex Bregman said. " wasn't trying to be anybody but himself. On Thursday, he became the first rookie shortstop in MLB history with a hit in five straight World Series games - and the first ever to hit a home run in the Fall Classic. He won ALCS MVP honors against the New York Yankees with homers in Games 1 and 4. 333/.357/.648 with four homers in 12 postseason games, including the go-ahead homer in the 18th inning of Game 3 of the ALDS against the Seattle Mariners. On the biggest stage, he's put together an incredible stretch, hitting. Peña, who Tuesday became the first rookie shortstop to win a Gold Glove, has sparked the Astros with his offense, too. On Opening Day, Peña became the first player other than Correa to start at shortstop for the Astros since 2015, but the rookie has picked up where his predecessor left off - as a key cog in a team playing in its fourth World Series in six years. He was playing in Triple-A by 2021, ranked as the 48th best prospect in baseball by ESPN's Kiley McDaniel ahead of the 2022 season. Peña had been in Houston's system since 2018, when he was drafted in the third round. Inside the at-bat that won Justin Verlander his first World Series game.More importantly, the team already had a succession plan in mind: Jeremy Peña. Signing Correa to an expensive, long-term contract would chip away at that vision. When Click came to Houston in 2020, he hoped to create a sustainable winner in the model of the Los Angeles Dodgers and his previous team, the Tampa Bay Rays. 1 overall pick with high expectations who had lived up to his promise in the major leagues.īut Astros GM James Click knew re-signing Correa would cost the team resources that could instead go toward building depth. He was one of the first players the Astros chose during their years of tanking under Jeff Luhnow's front office, a No. Their longtime shortstop, Carlos Correa, was one of the faces of the franchise, a player who stood up for the clubhouse amid the criticism the team faced from its trash-can-banging, sign-stealing scandal. THIS WINTER, THE Houston Astros were at a fork in the road.
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