It’s great. Set a franchise record. He’s also a 33 year old with a career era of 4.72, a season era of 4.75, an era plus that’s 12% worse then league average for his career, a career FIP of 4.64. I mean, we can go on and on and maybe the Astros at 33 years old can unlock something different in him that’s never been there over the entirety of his career with multiple different organizations, and I am certainly rooting for that to happen and him pitch us to a World Series title, but there is nothing about his performance, this year or in his career, that indicates he’s an above average pitcher or worth anything close to what we sent out to get him.
nothing would make me happier than the astros being right and changing the trajectory of his career.
I hated them letting Correa go. I said- he’s a proven post season performer. Peña is likely to be mid with the bat. Those guys typically get chewed up in the playoffs. Then, he has a mid rookie season with the bat. And second season. And third season so far.
he’s a career 99 ops+ guy (definition of mid with the bat- though when you play a premier defensive position like SS or catcher or Cf and are mid with the bat and really good with the glove that makes you a good overall player) and he sucked shit through a straw in the playoffs with the bat on the 2023 playoffs. But, in 2022 he caught lightning in a bottle, won the ALCS and WS mvp (and got big hits in the divisional series) and there’s a good chance that if we’d have signed Correa and his career 124 ops+ as opposed to Pena’s 99 ops+ we’d have won one World Series instead of 2. Baseball is a weird game. Literally anything can happen over a small sample size. I hope kikuchi shoves and we end up having a parade.