Houston Astros All-Star shortstop Jeremy Pena fractured the tip of his right ring finger during an exhibition game between his host Dominican Republic team and the Detroit Tigers on Wednesday.
Pena, 28, traveled from Santo Domingo to see a hand specialist on Thursday in West Palm Beach, Fla. The Astros announced the diagnosis and said he will be re-evaluated in two weeks.
Pena suffered the injury while making a play at short. He fielded a grounder behind second base by Detroit’s Wenceel Perez in the third inning and threw him out at first. Though he glanced at his throwing hand a few times, Pena batted in the bottom of the inning. He struck out against the Tigers’ Scott Effross, then left the game in favor of Geraldo Perdomo.
“Just the fact that he finished the inning, finished the play, felt good enough to go and get an at-bat — we know how tough Jeremy is — but I’m going to let our doctors take a look at him and then we’ll gauge where we go from here,” Houston manager Joe Espada said on Thursday.
Albert Pujols, the former MLB great managing the Dominican team, said Pena wanted to stay in the game but there was some blood coming out of his fingernail, Espada related.
Team Dominican Republic opens World Baseball Classic play on Friday with its Pool D opener against Nicaragua in Miami, followed by games on Saturday against the Netherlands, on Monday against Israel and Wednesday against Venezuela.
Pena, who had an X-ray after the game in his native Dominican Republic, hoped to take part in his first WBC competition, but that sounds likely to take a back seat to the Astros’ season opener three weeks away.
If Pena, a Gold Glove shortstop in 2022, cannot play when Houston hosts the Los Angeles Angels on March 26, the Astros can ask former shortstop Carlos Correa to shift over from third base. Correa, who won the Gold Glove in 2021, subbed for Pena when he missed time during the second half last year. That would allow Isaac Paredes to handle third base.
Pena was selected to his first All-Star Game last season, when he batted .304 with 17 home runs, 62 RBIs, a .363 on-base percentage and .477 slugging percentage. He missed the All-Star Game and the month of July due to a fractured rib, then was sidelined in the final week of the regular season by a strained oblique.
For his four-year career, all with Houston, Pena is batting .271 with 64 homers, 247 RBIs, a .320 on-base percentage and .417 slugging percentage.
He was World Series Most Valuable Player in 2022 when the Astros beat the Philadelphia Phillies in six games. He also was MVP of the American League Championship Series.
