Has Houston Astros World Series Star Revitalized His Career With Hot Start to Season?

The Houston Astros have somewhat found their stride in the past few series, putting themselves in a good position among the other teams in their division. With a 16-14 record, they currently sit in second place in the American League West, only two games behind the Seattle Mariners for the lead. This success was heavily reliant on the pitching staff early on, but as things settled in and the bats began to turn around, some players started to stand out.

One of the most notable players this season who has been putting together an enormously productive first month is Jeremy Peña, who has been the offensive focal point for the club through the first few series. He currently leads the team in batting average, slugging, home runs (tied), total bases, doubles (tied), and WAR among batters. The batting from Peña has been outstanding all around, though, slashing .

282/.355/.436 with 17 runs, 12 RBI, four home runs, five stolen bases, and 20 strikeouts to 10 walks.

When looking into some of the more advanced metrics on Baseball Savant , he ranks 75th percentile in xwOBA, 88th percentile in xBA, 73rd percentile in hard-hit percentage, and 80th percentile in strikeout percentage. There is not one true statistic that has fueled his success, but rather the fact that he has remained around or above league average in nearly all of them. The one exception to this is his sprint speed, where he ranks 98th percentile among his peers.

This is not exceptionally surprising given he is five for five on stolen bases and has five doubles in 31 hits. The defense has been arguably the best part of Peña's game however, which is hard to do given how exceptional the offense has been. He ranks 93rd percentile in fielding range based on outs above average, where he currently has three.

In 267.2 innings at shortstop, he has had 96 chances, accruing 33 putouts, 61 assists, and turning seven double plays, with only two errors to his name, good for a .979 fielding rate.

While the efficiency has not been perfect on that side of the ball, he is making rather spectacular plays that would not be expected of many players at the position. With a few errors to his name he has a little bit of cleaning up to do in that regard, but ultimately it is not of the utmost concern as he continues to be reliable and effective at one of the hardest fielding positions in baseball..