The Astros have already defined who will replace Carlos Correa

Time will tell if the Dominican prospect Jeremy Pena will fill the space of Carlos Correa. At least immediately, the position is yours.

Correa’s departure from Houston leaves the Astros without a Gold Glove winner, an All Star considered a dugout leader and the second-leading run producer in 2021 with 104 runs scored and 92 RBIs.

Two gaps are what the prospect Peña has to fill before the departure of Correa, who signed with the Minnesota Twins for three seasons and $105 million after the impression was given that he would return to Houston in the midst of a complicated first experience in free agency.

Houston, at least, handed over the position to Peña before Correa’s news. Astros manager Dusty Baker told the US media last week that the Dominican is “the main candidate” to occupy the shortstop position.

Peña is considered a more defensive than offensive player, according to US media.

But in the 2021-22 Dominican League regular season he hit .291 in 117 at-bats for finalist Estrellas Orientales. He drove in 16 runs.

And between Triple-A and Rookie with the Astros in 2021, the 6-foot-0 right-handed hitter batted .297, hitting 10 home runs in 160 at-bats. All the home runs were in Triple A. He reached base for a .368 average for the year.

The son of former Major League player Gerónimo Peña, the shortstop developed as a player in the United States and was selected by the Astros in the third round of the 2018 draw. He graduated from the University of Maine.

He will reach the Major Leagues without having played Double A and with only 30 games of experience in Triple A. He is 24 years old.

Baker said Pena is going to get plenty of playing time in spring training to catch up to a level he’s never played at and team up with All-Star second baseman Jose Altuve in the double-play combination.

Altuve, for his part, said he will miss Correa, but that he embraces the arrival of the talented Peña.

“I know Carlos will make the Twins a better team, but at the same time I think Jeremy will break into the big leagues and help us improve the team. He has a lot of talent, a lot of tools to put to use,” Altuve told MLB.com.

Pena can at least rest in the knowledge that he will still have a lineup capable of producing a lot of runs in front of him.

Given Correa’s departure, the Astros keep the core of Altuve, Alex Bregman, champion batter Yulieski Gurriel, as well as left-handers Yordan Álvarez and Kyle Tucker, who drove in over 100 runs each in 2021 and are young players with room to play. grow.

“We have another great opportunity in front of us to go deep in the postseason,” Altuve said. “We have good players. Tucker heads into 2022 after a monstrous 2021. We have to go back to Justin Verlander, who is a Hall of Famer. We have Alvarez and Yuli, who won the batting title. We have a lot of good pitching, good defensive and offensive players. We’re going to go deep again.”

The Astros have been to three World Series in the last five seasons. They kept it up in 2021 despite losing one of their biggest run producers, outfielder George Springer, as well as Verlander to surgery and Cy Young right-hander Gerrit Cole, who signed as a free agent with the Yankees.