Correa who? How Jeremy Pena replaced an Astros icon, without the team losing a step
THIS WINTER, THE Houston Astros were at a fork in the road.
Their longtime shortstop, Carlos Correa, was one of the faces of the franchise, a player who stood up for the clubhouse amid the criticism the team faced from its trash-can-banging, sign-stealing scandal. He was one of the first players the Astros chose during their years of tanking under Jeff Luhnow’s front office, a No. 1 overall pick with high expectations who had lived up to his promise in the major leagues.
But Astros GM James Click knew re-signing Correa would cost the team resources that could instead go toward building depth. When Click came to Houston in 2020, he hoped to create a sustainable winner in the model of the Los Angeles Dodgers and his previous team, the Tampa Bay Rays. Signing Correa to an expensive, long-term contract would chip away at that vision.
More importantly, the team already had a succession plan in mind: Jeremy Peña.
Peña had been in Houston’s system since 2018, when he was drafted in the third round. He was playing in Triple-A by 2021, ranked as the 48th best prospect in baseball by ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel ahead of the 2022 season. On Opening Day, Peña became the first player other than Correa to start at shortstop for the Astros since 2015, but the rookie has picked up where his predecessor left off — as a key cog in a team playing in its fourth World Series in six years.
Peña, who Tuesday became the first rookie shortstop to win a Gold Glove, has sparked the Astros with his offense, too. On the biggest stage, he’s put together an incredible stretch, hitting .333/.357/.648 with four homers in 12 postseason games, including the go-ahead homer in the 18th inning of Game 3 of the ALDS against the Seattle Mariners. He won ALCS MVP honors against the New York Yankees with homers in Games 1 and 4. On Thursday, he became the first rookie shortstop in MLB history with a hit in five straight World Series games — and the first ever to hit a home run in the Fall Classic.
In other words: Correa who?
“[Peña] wasn’t trying to be anybody but himself. He said that from day one,” teammate Alex Bregman said. “He understood how good Carlos has been and what he meant to every single person in here. His only focus was just to be Jeremy and he’s stuck with that the whole year. He’s trying to play his game and leave his legacy.”
And while Peña’s performance catapulted him into the Rookie of the Year conversation, his poise allowed him not just to replace a franchise player, but to come through in October.
“I felt confident in my abilities,” Peña said. “Not just defense, not just hitting. I felt like I could do a little bit of everything. I knew I could hit. I knew I could run. I knew I could throw, could field. It was a matter of getting the opportunity and taking advantage.”
WHEN THE ASTROS envisioned Peña taking over for Correa, they imagined a player who would be ready to play elite defense on Day 1. After all, he’d been perfecting his glovework since his summers growing up in Providence, Rhode Island, where Peña and his older and younger brothers, Austin and Carlos, created a game they called “Big League.”
The rules of “Big League” were simple: Throw the ball hard off a concrete wall and field the quick bounceback cleanly to earn a point. If you grabbed 10 ground balls in a row, you’d get 10 points and a spot on a minor league team. The next 10 grounders might send you up a level, from short-season ball to High-A, and so on. But if you missed one, you’d be demoted. The winner was the first brother to make it all the way to the major leagues.
“We would be playing for hours and we’ve caught like 600 ground balls, not even thinking about it,” Peña said. “We were just having fun. My older brother [Austin] was always the first to get to the big leagues. I would be stuck in Double-A and my little brother would not even be signed.”
When the New England winters came, Peña found another wall — this one in his family’s basement — and threw a yellow batting cage ball against it, to work on his hands. He’d pick up balls barehanded, backhanded — any way he could to improve.
“Baseball, you gotta have your foundation,” Peña said. “You gotta have your fundamentals. When you play games like that, then you have that in your back pocket. You know you can dive and throw the ball from a knee.”
When Peña showed up to baseball tryouts at Providence’s Classical High School as a freshman, head coach Ken Wnuk didn’t hold back. Wnuk always liked to put infielders to the test immediately, hitting grounders hard and seeing how they reacted to bad bounces on the particularly patchy baseball fields of the Northeast. Peña handled them with ease.
“I don’t pussyfoot around with ground balls,” Wnuk said. “But he made all the plays, all the throws and I’m just thinking, ‘This kid is f—ing good.'”
When University of Maine head coach Nick Derba first scouted Peña as a high school sophomore, he saw a fluidity to the shortstop’s hands, with footwork and instincts exceeding his expectations for a 16-year-old player.
“He was a Double-A shortstop as a sophomore in high school,” Derba said. “I watched him take one ground ball and I thought he was the best defender in the country.”
The Peña family’s affinity for baseball, though, didn’t start with three young boys finding creative ways to play the game they loved.
It started with Peña’s father, Geronimo, an infielder for St. Louis and Cleveland who played his last game in the major leagues in 1998, a year after Jeremy Peña was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
When Peña was nine, the family moved to Providence to be near family. There, Peña truly began his love affair with baseball, often heading out with his dad to field hundreds if not thousands of ground balls in a single session. At McCoy Stadium in nearby Pawtucket, the former home of the Boston Red Sox Triple-A affiliate, Peña would watch players like Dustin Pedroia, Jon Lester, Josh Reddick and Daniel Nava make their mark.
“I grew up a big fan, but I also wanted to be in it,” Peña said. “I would go to a game, and while everyone’s rooting for the home runs, I was paying attention to the pre-pitch hop, what players were doing, how they were moving. I was watching what the players were doing on deck, watching the little things.”
His father, a big league role model under the same roof, shared stories from his career, giving his son a sense of the baseball lifestyle and work ethic it would require to follow his childhood heroes to the majors.
“It gives you a sense that it’s possible,” Peña said.
The Atlanta Braves saw something in Peña, selecting him in the 39th round of the 2015 MLB Draft. Peña chose to not sign, and instead headed to the University of Maine, where he’d earn a spot on the America East Conference All-Rookie team. He spent his summers playing in the New England Collegiate Baseball League with the Plymouth Pilgrims, then later with the Chatham Angels in the Cape Cod Baseball League, where he was named an All-Star.
After a breakout season in his junior year, Peña was drafted by the Astros in the third round of the 2018 draft. Derba — who himself was selected in the 30th round of the 2007 draft by the Cardinals, and made it as far as Triple-A — has seen many players get drafted. But Peña’s goal, he said, was about more than getting drafted, and more, too, than even reaching the major leagues.
“He hadn’t gotten to where he wanted to be yet,” said Derba.
WITH THE LARGER plan of replacing Correa in mind, the Astros added Peña to their taxi squad during the 2021 postseason, hoping to expose him to the pressure of the big leagues, even if only from the bench. They wanted him to absorb the veteran influence of Jose Altuve and Bregman. Just a few months later, after seeing him adjust so well to the major league clubhouse, Click felt comfortable moving forward with Peña at shortstop for 2022.
“He just looked the part of a very talented major league shortstop,” Click said. “Letting go of Carlos was obviously a very difficult decision. Not easy by any means, but these are the kind of things we have to do in order to keep this franchise winning, to be able to withstand the inevitable losses.”
The expectation for Peña was that he was going to be a defense-first shortstop. With the strength of the Astros’ lineup, hitting like Correa wasn’t a requirement.
But Peña’s game proved to include some pop, too. The rookie hit .263/.310/.454 with 13 homers in the first half, and ended the season hitting .253/.289/.426 with 22 homers — tied with Correa for sixth among all MLB shortstops. His 4.8 bWAR wasn’t far off from Correa’s 5.4.
“We were extremely confident that he would be able to hold down shortstop from a defensive position and add value that way,” Click said. “The offense — not that it was gravy, but it gave us high confidence of where the floor was for him.”
Peña’s success has been a part of the Astros’ evolution into a perennial juggernaut, a player development factory with established veterans and young rising stars like Yordan Alvarez, Framber Valdez and Cristian Javier. Correa went on to sign with the Minnesota Twins for a $35.1 million annual salary, and, because of Peña, the Astros haven’t missed a step at shortstop.
He’s a crucial part of the Astros’ lineup, and his homers in big October moments have come as no surprise to teammates like designated hitter Trey Mancini.
“The way he carries himself is like a 10-year veteran,” Mancini said. “Just so cool, calm, collected in every situation. The first day I met him, I remember I got traded over [from Baltimore] and I kept forgetting this kid’s a rookie.”
Astros manager Dusty Baker was immediately impressed by the way Peña handled the media attention, unusual for a player who did not come up as a highly touted prospect.
“You could tell by his brightness in his eyes and his alertness on the field that he wasn’t scared and he wasn’t fazed by this,” Baker said. “Boy, he’s been a godsend for us, especially since we lost Carlos.”
Peña certainly wasn’t fazed in Game 5 of the World Series, homering and driving in two runs to help put the Astros one win from a championship.
“What he’s done this year was similar to when I saw a young Andruw Jones as a young player with the Braves against the Yankees [in the 1996 World Series],” Baker said. “Every once in a while these guys come along, not that often, but it just goes to show you, I mean, his future is very, very bright.”
Now, Peña finds himself on the cusp of baseball history.
“You dream about this stuff when you’re a kid,” Peña said of playing October baseball. “Shout out to my teammates. We show up every single day. We stayed true to ourselves all year. We’re a step away from our ultimate goal.”
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Chris Low, ESPN Senior Writer
Tennessee‘s Nico Iamaleava has been cleared medically to play Saturday against Georgia and is set to return as the Vols’ starting quarterback, sources told ESPN.
Iamaleava, a redshirt freshman, missed the second half of the 33-14 win over Mississippi State last week after suffering a blow to the head. He was listed as questionable earlier this week on the SEC availability report but has been removed in the latest report.
Iamaleava practiced this week, including team periods, and there was optimism among the staff that he was trending in the right direction and would be able to play. But the final call was made by medical personnel. Iamaleava was examined by doctors for what sources told ESPN were concussion-like symptoms after leaving the Mississippi State game. He did not return to the sideline for the second half.
Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said on Monday that he felt like Iamaleava would be in “great shape for Saturday” and noted that Iamaleava was with the team earlier Monday morning for meetings and team activities. The Vols’ first full-scale practice was Tuesday.
Iamaleava was having his most productive outing against an SEC team this season before leaving the game against Mississippi State. He completed 8 of 13 passes for 174 yards, no interceptions and a pair of touchdowns as Tennessee built a 20-7 halftime lead. In Iamaleava’s previous five SEC games, he had accounted for three touchdowns and turned it over five times. He was also sacked 15 times in those five games.
Redshirt senior Gaston Moore filled in for Iamaleava in the second half last week and finished 5-of-8 for 38 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions.
Getting Iamaleava back for the Georgia game is big news for Tennessee, which is right in the middle of the SEC championship race and College Football Playoff picture.
Receiver Dont’e Thornton (hand) has also been given the green light to play for Tennessee after earlier being listed as questionable.
Week 12 is here as we take a look at an SEC matchup that has College Football Playoff implications, learn about three of the nation’s top passers who all played under the same coach and see what’s going on in the Big 12.
No. 7 Tennessee will visit Sanford Stadium as it takes on conference opponent No. 12 Georgia on Saturday night. With so much at stake, what can each team improve on ahead of this SEC showdown?
The Big 12 has six teams in the hunt for a spot in the conference title game. With the final CFP rankings coming out in less than a month, what scenario looks most realistic for the conference in terms of how many of its teams could make the 12-team field?
Our college football experts preview big games and storylines ahead of the Week 12 slate.
Jump to a section:
Tennessee-Georgia | The coach behind three top QB passers
What’s going on in the Big 12 | Quotes of the Week
What has each team done well in conference play? What improvements can be made?
It has been a historic (and dominant) season for Tennessee’s defense, which has yet to give up more than 19 points in any of its nine games. Against SEC competition, the Volunteers lead the conference in scoring defense, giving up 16.7 points per game, and also lead the way in third-down defense and red zone defense. In other words, they’ve given up very little of anything on defense and are buoyed by a line that’s both talented and deep. Tennessee plays a ton of players up front and has been especially good at forcing key turnovers. In 23 trips inside its own 20-yard line, the Vols have forced six turnovers.
The reality is that Tennessee has played to its defense for much of this season out of necessity. The offense has lacked consistency and struggled to generate explosive plays, particularly in the passing game. It’s not all on redshirt freshman quarterback Nico Iamaleava, either. Iamaleava has thrown only five touchdown passes in six SEC games, and the Vols are tied for 10th with an average of 7.5 yards per completion. Iamaleava, who sustained a head injury in a win over Mississippi State last week, has been the victim of poor pass protection at times, and his receivers have dropped some costly passes. Iamaleava has also been shaky when it comes to overthrowing receivers and occasionally holding onto the ball too long.
The bright spot on offense for Tennessee has been running back Dylan Sampson, who has a school-record 20 rushing touchdowns. He has been a constant for the Vols on offense and has an SEC-leading 772 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns in conference play. As good as he has been, the Vols are probably going to need more from their passing game to win in Athens. — Chris Low
The Bulldogs didn’t do much of anything well in last week’s 28-10 loss at Ole Miss, which was the first time in a long time that Kirby Smart’s team was manhandled on the lines of scrimmage.
The good news for Georgia: It’s heading home to Sanford Stadium for the first time in more than a month. Georgia hasn’t dropped back-to-back games in the regular season since 2016, Smart’s first season, and it has bounced back after each of its past eight losses. The Bulldogs have won seven of their past eight games against the Volunteers.
For all of quarterback Carson Beck‘s turnovers, Georgia’s problems on offense probably start up front. The offensive line hasn’t done a good job of protecting him, and the Bulldogs’ lack of a potent running game has prevented them from effectively utilizing play-action passes. Their banged-up offensive line is going to face another formidable defensive front Saturday. Georgia has 27 dropped passes, fourth most in the FBS, according to TruMedia, so its receivers need to become more reliable as well. — Mark Schlabach
The coach behind three of college football’s top passers
Miami‘s Cam Ward, Washington State‘s John Mateer and North Texas‘ Chandler Morris are three of the top five quarterbacks in total offense this season in FBS. All three have the same head coach to thank for where they are today.
North Texas coach Eric Morris coached Ward at Incarnate Word and Washington State, recruited Mateer to the Cougars and signed Morris out of the transfer portal this offseason. All three hailed from Texas and are putting up big numbers this season. Morris, a Mike Leach disciple, knows what he’s looking for when it comes to QBs.
For each one, the journey was different. Ward was a zero-star recruit out of West Columbia, Texas, played in a wing-T offense and had no scholarship offers. But he showed up to Incarnate Word’s camp in 2019 and impressed with his quick release and accuracy. Morris saw appealing traits, too, in Ward’s multisport talents.
“He was such a good basketball player,” Morris said. “He was a bigger guy who could really handle the ball and move with ease. He had a twitch and quickness about him that was almost Mahomes-esque, where he’s not fast but you see him get out of the pocket and scramble and he’s nifty on his feet. He saw the floor great and shot the basketball great.
“It might be easier at an FCS school to take that risk, but it was something we were really confident in.”
Ward came in with extreme confidence, telling coaches he’d win the starting job over their returning all-conference player (and he did). He followed Morris to Pullman, Washington, out of loyalty to the coach who believed in him. Now he’s playing on a big stage, chasing a College Football Playoff bid and a Heisman Trophy with the No. 9 Hurricanes.
“It’s been fun to watch him flourish and get rewarded for being patient all these years,” Morris said.
When Morris left UIW to become Washington State’s offensive coordinator in 2022, he brought Ward but needed another QB. On his first recruiting trip in Texas, he stopped by to check out Mateer. The two-star recruit had a prolific senior season at Little Elm High School but was committed to Central Arkansas. Morris didn’t understand what FBS programs were missing and convinced Mateer to flip.
After two seasons behind Ward, Mateer has emerged as one of the top dual-threat QBs in college football with 2,332 passing yards, 805 rushing yards (excluding sacks) and 33 total TDs.
“I think the sky’s the limit,” Ward said. “He’s just so dang hard to tackle in the open field. Just a kid that loves ball and was under-recruited. The tide’s turned and he ends up being a big-time ballplayer.”
Chandler Morris was not an under-the-radar talent, but he’s having his best season yet at North Texas. He began his career at Oklahoma, won the starting job at TCU in 2022, sustained a knee injury in its season opener and then watched Max Duggan lead the Horned Frogs to the national title game.
Morris had a six-game stint as TCU’s starter last season before injuring the same knee. At UNT, he’s leading the nation’s No. 3 passing offense with 3,244 total yards and 30 TDs. Like Ward and Mateer, he processes information quickly, makes plays with his feet and throws outside the pocket with accuracy. If you ask Eric Morris, those traits are a must in today’s game. When paired with his version of Air Raid ball, you get big-time results.
“It’s been fun to see him get his swagger back,” Morris said.
Eric Morris points to Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson and Jayden Daniels. The QBs thriving at the highest level are becoming unstoppable by creating plays out of the pocket. And so are his guys.
“Everybody obviously watches Cam and the magic he makes,” Morris said, “but I think all three of ’em can make plays when it’s not a perfect play call. There are a bunch of really good pure passers nowadays, but that’s what sets them all apart.” — Max Olson
What’s going on in the Big 12?
Two-thirds of the way through the Big 12 schedule, six teams are still in the hunt for a title-game appearance: BYU (6-0), Colorado (5-1), Arizona State, Iowa State, Kansas State and West Virginia, all of which are 4-2. There are too many variables to discuss all the scenarios, but the conference has a straightforward tiebreaker policy.
It’s possible to come up with scenarios in which the Big 12 could get two bids, one bid or shut out altogether.
For the Big 12 to get two bids, BYU probably would have to finish 12-0, then lose a close game in the championship to a two-loss team (Colorado, Iowa State or Kansas State). A 12-1 BYU team would get consideration, but it would become a question of how far it would fall and what else happens around the country.
The most likely scenario is the Big 12 will get one team in: whichever one wins the conference title game. If BYU wins out, it will have a bye, but if it slips up even once — or if another team wins the title — Boise State might be in position to get a first-round bye, assuming the Broncos win out.
The doomsday scenario in the Big 12 is if the conference champion has two or three losses and Army and Boise State win out. If that’s the case, there is a good possibility both of those schools would be ranked ahead of the Big 12 champion and the Big 12 would be left out. — Kyle Bonagura
Quotes of the Week
“They’re stubborn, man. They’re physical. He is an elite runner. The runs they run are sometimes nontraditional. They run some runs that other people don’t run because of the space in the box. He’s very patient. He hits small creases. He’s hard to tackle. How many touchdowns has he got in the SEC? Twenty-something? That’s crazy. In the SEC? The SEC is the hardest league in the world to run the ball in on because they’ve got the most size defensive lineman, and he continues to do it at a crazy pace to me.” — Kirby Smart on Volunteers tailback Dylan Sampson.
“I never try to take a step back. I try to take a step up. I’m always putting my head out the window. I’m trying to see around the corner, not trying to see straight ahead. It’s normalcy for everybody to see what’s in front of them. I’m trying to see around the corner. That’s the relationship I have with the Lord, to help me see around the corner so I can help navigate these young men as well as the women that’s attached to our program to a better way and a better life. So I don’t get caught up in the ‘You go, boys!’ or the ‘You ain’t nothing.’ You know, if I would’ve listened to you guys earlier, I’ve gotta listen to you now. So I might as well just put some headphones on and block you out. Notice I don’t have a sponsor for headphones, but that would’ve been a good placement for a sponsor.” — Deion Sanders when asked if he takes time to step back and appreciate the magnitude of Colorado’s turnaround.
“I hope anyone who has ambitions about playing in the National Football League, let’s see what you’ve got against Clemson. Let’s see you play your best game here. If you weren’t focused for Virginia, which I can’t imagine you weren’t — and I’m not saying anybody was not focused — but if they didn’t get your focus, I imagine Clemson will get your focus when you put the tape on.” — Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi on whether playing Clemson gets the attention of his players.
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