Jeremy Pena’s late-season slide has become a real problem for the Astros, and Sunday only made it worse. Hitting at the top of the order, the shortstop has gone from one of the league’s most productive bats at his position to a player Houston is now desperate to get right over the final 12 games.
The drop-off has been steep. On Aug.
2, Pena was batting .322 with a .904 OPS, production that ranked 12th in baseball and first among shortstops. That kind of stretch fit right in with what he did last year, when he hit .304 with an .840 OPS.
Since Aug. 2, though, the numbers have cratered. Pena is down to a .518 OPS over that span, and Sunday’s 0-for-2 game was part of a stretch in which he is hitting .170 with 49 strikeouts in 150 plate appearances.
According to baseball reference, he had piled up -1.108 win probability added entering Sunday. His on-base percentage has fallen to .220, and his slugging percentage sits at .298.
September has been even rougher. Pena has hit .149 in the month with a .391 OPS across 12 games, and he has only two extra-base hits, both doubles.
The struggles have shown up in the field, too. Pena had posted 1.3 dWAR or better in each of his first four seasons, but this year he is at just 0.3.
On Sunday, with two outs and runners on first and second, he drifted back on a routine play with the Rays already up 3-0. He misplayed it, allowing a run to score.
Tampa Bay then put the game away on the next at-bat with a three-run homer, leaving Pena tied to four unearned runs on Hayden Wesneski’s line.
Houston has leaned on Pena all season, and with Yordan Alvarez waiting behind him in the lineup, the Astros need him to get moving again. He has shown he can catch fire over short bursts, including the 2022 postseason and the first half of 2026. Even a return to the version of Pena who hit .261 with a .707 OPS across his first three seasons, while bringing steady defense and timely hitting, would be a welcome change right now.
What makes the slump tougher to take is that the Astros have already seen Pena at his best in 2025 and early 2026. Now they need that player back, and fast, if they want to hold their division lead and make any kind of run in the American League playoffs.
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