Astros' Shortstop Breakout Offensive Season

When the Houston Astros let Carlos Correa walk after the 2021 season, many people wondered if they had shot themselves in the foot with roster construction.

After all, Correa had been a staple of this lineup and franchise, becoming one of the most successful playoff performers of all time.

Yet, the Astros decided they didn't want to pay him a massive contract and were comfortable handing the position over to rising prospect Jeremy Pena.

Nobody could have predicted what the 26-year-old would do in his rookie season as he became the ALCS and World Series MVPs, while slashing .345/.367/.638 with four home runs and eight RBI during the postseason.

Heading into 2023, the sky was the limit for Pena.

However, things didn't quite go that way as he put together a campaign labeled as disappointing because of hitting only 10 home runs and driving in 52 runs, compared to 22 homers and 63 RBI his rookie year.

Entering 2024, the shortstop has gone 351 plate appearances without hitting a home run.

With all that pressure mounting on when the next one will be, Chandler Rome of The Athletic thinks that Pena could have a breakout offensive season this year.

He highlighted the positives about what he did at the plate in 2023.

"He raised his batting average by 10 points and his on-base percentage by 35. The shortstop slashed both his chase and whiff rate by two percent, raised his walk rate from 3.9 percent to 6.8 percent and struck out just 20.4 percent of the time — two percentage points below the major-league average," Rome writes.

Those are good signs for a hitter who was seen as having a down year.

Power numbers will get a lot of attention, and he certainly didn't produce the same amount as in 2022, but he also had tons of improvement as well that projects positively going forward.

"His next task is to pair that with the power he showed in his first season. Last year, Pena’s ground-ball rate rose to 54.4 percent and he hit line drives just 22.9 percent of the time. Finding a way to elevate the baseball — not just for home runs, but for gap power or extra-base hits — should be Pena’s foremost priority this winter and into spring training," Rome adds.

If the rising star is able to make these little tweaks to his game, then he could have a monster year.

As Rome highlights, his approach at the plate was much better in his second season than during his first, something that will help him continue to improve as a hitter.

So, while many were focused on the negatives of Pena's hitting last year, all of that could change during 2024 if he puts it all together and explodes offensively.