The Houston Astros
Friday, March 6, 2026.
Yesterday, it was revealed that Jeremy Pena has a fracture in the tip of his right ring finger, causing him to miss the World Baseball Classic.
This is significant for many reasons. First, Pena will miss at least two weeks of prep work and game time, resulting in him having to catch up once he’s healthy. Second, finger injuries can be difficult to ramp up, simply because if a player does too much too soon, it can result in setbacks. Third, and probably the most important, is that he plays for the Houston Astros, and that team has a history of misdiagnosed injuries, and for all we know, this could lead to something even bigger than it already is. Let’s go back in time, shall we?
It’s important to note that former Astros GM James Click was publicly critical of the team’s “return to play” philosophy. Back in 2022, Jake Meyers suffered a shoulder injury. The team apparently rushed him back too soon, and his 2022 season was a disaster. Over 52 games played, he finished with just one home run, two stolen bases, and a .227 batting average. Catastrophic doesn’t begin to explain it, but it turns out that he was playing through the injury and required offseason shoulder surgery. As Click put it:
Click was fired three months after calling out his team publicly like that. It’s unclear whether this was the reason, but rumors suggest it was a contributing factor.
Since then, there have been many instances of the team mishandling player injuries, leading to setbacks and delays in their careers. Watch out, because Conspiracy Dave is on the loose. In 2025 alone:
Yordan Alvarez - a misdiagnosed muscle strain resulted in him having a fractured bone in his hand, causing extended time away
Jake Meyers - missed minimal time with a calf strain, tried to play through it, and was carted off the field
Isaac Paredes - suffered a hamstring strain, got an injection instead of surgery to leave the table open for a return, and wasn’t the same when he came back
Jeremy Pena - thought he was feeling better from a side injury, but it turned out he had a fractured rib
Before that, we had:
Kyle Tucker - a minor bone bruise turned out to be a fractured shin bone, only to have that conclusion realized after months of the season
Lance McCullers - had missed an incredible amount of time with setbacks galore, leading to questions about how the team handled his career
Jose Altuve - played through an avulsion fracture in his kneecap, though the team believed that it was just knee discomfort
George Springer - injured his hamstring and had it described as not devastating, only to later find out it was a Grade 2 hamstring strain
Disclaimer: Not every team will get every injury assessment correct, especially right away. For that to happen, it takes full cooperation from both the player and management to assess the situation, classify it accordingly, offer full disclosure on how someone is feeling, and put the greater good of the team aside. That won’t always happen. However, the Astros have been in the forefront of these mishaps for years, and it feels like they may never learn. One would think that if mistakes are made repeatedly, they should learn from them.
The fallout from these can be major. Players who don’t perform on the field may not get paid by a team in arbitration, contract extensions, and/or free agency. Not only that, the mental and physical well-being of a player to be pushed to do something that they feel uncomfortable doing can be intrusive. Imagine you are at your job, being told to do something that you feel is unsafe, all so that your employer can benefit from it. You would not like it, and you can bet these players don’t either. These decisions can shorten careers, cause chronic conditions, and create an environment of fear and anxiety. I’m not saying that Jose Pena’s finger injury will head down this road, but if history repeats itself yet again, we could be in for a long season. This is, unfortunately, what happens when the Houston Astros are involved with baseball and injuries.