He was never projected to be a 100 WRc+ MLB player. His rookie year and fantastic playoffs masked that. And could end up being his offensive career year. There's nothing wrong with that. Even at 90 wRC+ He is a 4 WAR player which is amazing as the 6th-7th best player on a team.
Him being average with a bat makes him very touchable when it comes to trade talks. Even if he was the 5th bealst bat on the team, he would be untouchable. If he was the guy Chicago wanted.in a Cease Robert trade, I would be all in on it.
Also, Possible Time Traveler. He is seen in the 1986 Mike Scott no hitter celebration for a brief instant. At the 1 hour 58 minute and 59 second marker during the celebration Jeremy Pena seems to appear and then disappear spontaneously. Just up and vanishes.
2023 Pena... AVG.238...HR-10...RBI-39... OPS.666... Salary- $754,900 Correa... AVG.221...HR-12...RBI-46...OPS-.677... Salary- $33,333,333
https://theathletic.com/4754191/2023/08/06/astros-jon-singleton-promotion-soon/ Returning to the site of his playoff glories did nothing to propel Jeremy Peña out of his offensive funk. He finished this four-game series against the Yankees 3-for-13, lowering his OPS to .668 and furthering concern about his pronounced struggles. Peña is now slashing .239/.300/.368 after 431 plate appearances. He has not homered since July 5 and has four extra-base hits in his past 109 plate appearances. Recreating his postseason success for a full season never seemed realistic, but Peña has plummeted into perhaps the deepest funk of his brief big-league career. After he committed another error at shortstop on Sunday, it’s worth wondering if the weight of his struggles is mounting. “Yeah, it’s got to wear on him. If you’re used to hitting and you’re not hitting, life’s not very pleasant,” Baker said before Sunday’s game. “They’ve kind of got him in no man’s land right now. (He’s) in between — early on the breaking ball and late on the fastball. These guys, they go to school on you and go to work on you. And they’re teasing him.” Peña’s problems are twofold: He is not doing any damage against four-seam fastballs and he is hitting far too many ground balls. Two of Peña’s hits during this four-game series were ground ball infield singles. He entered Sunday’s game with a 53.8 percent ground ball rate — more than six points higher than his mark last season. Peña is coming over and around the baseball when he swings, which is causing his bat path to be different than last season and producing more ground ball contact. Peña entered Sunday’s game seeing more four-seam fastballs this season than last. He hit .293 with a .560 slugging percentage against the pitch last season. Entering Sunday’s game, Peña had a .269 batting average and .444 slugging percentage against them. Baker has intimated that Peña can be too concerned with chasing sliders down and away and thus leaves himself susceptible to missing hittable four-seamers. Baker has tinkered with his lineup in an attempt to catalyze Peña, even hitting him second in 10 of the past 12 games. Peña slashed .290/.315/.522 during 219 plate appearances in the two-hole last season and authored all of his postseason heroics hitting second. Recreating that dominance, however, is proving difficult. “I’m hearing ‘Hey, why is he hitting second?’ This dude did a hell of a job hitting second and if he doesn’t get good pitches (to hit) hitting in front of (Kyle) Tucker and (Yordan) Alvarez, you’re not going to get good pitches,” Baker said. “But he’s in no man’s land. They’re teasing him … Right now, it’s part of the learning process. It’s hard to come up to the big leagues and just keep hitting.”
Peña’s bat was really good in August despite the lack of home runs. Really pleased at his progression of taking walks and making more contact, think if he can end the season with an OPS+ over 100, it will have been a steady but not spectacular sophomore campaign.
I haven't looked at any numbers, but it looks to me (and I heard it mentioned) that he has nearly stopped swinging at low and away slop that he can't get too. If he can get on base at .325+ clip in 9th hole ahead of Altuve - game changer. Hopefully it's not too much to expect.
Going back to July 26 (139 PA) where his OPS bottomed out at .656, his line is.333/420/.450, and the far most impressive thing is the 24/17 K/BB ratio. The numbers are inflated by an unsustainably high BABIP, but his xOBP over his last 100 PA is still a rock solid .346, and over the last 2 weeks he has finally been able to put some power back into his stroke, even if he hasn't connected with a longball yet. This is clearly a hot stretch he's in right now, but there's a lot of underlying numbers to also think that he's a young hitter ready to perform at an overall high level than he has for the past 2 years.
Following up the next year with. This guy has a lot of work to do at the plate. Muscles ain’t working there
He **** the bed big time. Basically needs to find some way to reset and start all over because whatever he did this season didn't work. A sports psychologist might be a good place to start.
His swing is just too flawed. He would have to start from scratch if he even wants to be at least an average hitter. The power outtage is the most baffling part. I could take a low on-base percentage and average if you hit dongs every now and then..but yeah..1 homer since the beginning of July.
Pretty bad Sophomore slump but Jeremy was a great shortstop for this team. Tbh, im not even mad. He saved us many games this year with his glove.
Pena had one xBH all post-season and correct me if I’m wrong but I think it’s when he did that stupid dance on the base when we were getting blown out. I guess when it happens so rarely, you have to milk it for all its worth.
Pena was always expected to be a slightly below average hitting gold glove calibur shortstop. He exceeded that expectations in his rookie year and post season so we got our hopes up. The lack of HR power in the 2nd half of 2023 was baffling and I think won't be seen again. He will settle in as a 90 wRC+ hitter with 15-20 HR every season and great defense. That's a 3.5-4 WAR player and fine as the #9 hitter. Working on his base stealing and becoming average to slightly above average would also help.
