{"id":582167,"date":"2026-04-13T19:23:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T19:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/582167\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T19:23:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T19:23:07","slug":"astros-place-jeremy-pena-tatsuya-imai-on-injured-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/582167\/","title":{"rendered":"Astros Place Jeremy Pe\u00f1a, Tatsuya Imai On Injured List"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Astros announced that they have placed infielder Jeremy Pe\u00f1a<\/a> on the 10-day injured list with a grade 1 hamstring strain. Right-hander Tatsuya Imai<\/a> has been placed on the 15-day IL due to right arm fatigue. Both of those IL placements are retroactive to April 12th. Right-hander Jayden Murray<\/a> has been optioned to the Triple-A Sugar Land. In corresponding moves for those three, Houston has recalled left-hander Colton Gordon<\/a>, right-hander J.P. France<\/a> and infielder\/outfielder Shay Whitcomb<\/a>. France was just optioned and would normally have to wait 15 days before being recalled but an exception is made when someone is going on the IL.<\/p>\n

At this point, there hasn\u2019t been anything to indicate that either injury is particularly serious. However, the double blow is notable when considering the larger context. The team has already suffered a number of injuries and two more won\u2019t help.<\/p>\n

Pe\u00f1a departed Saturday\u2019s game with an injury. The team initially announced the issue as right posterior knee tightness, though it appears further testing has found a hamstring strain. The Astros lost their center fielder a few days earlier, as Jake Meyers<\/a> suffered an oblique strain. Now they will be without their everyday shortstop as well.<\/p>\n

Losing Pe\u00f1a isn\u2019t a good thing but the only silver lining is that it will be easier to spread playing time around to the club\u2019s other infielders. Christian Walker<\/a> has played almost every day at first base and the same is true of Jose Altuve<\/a> at second base. Carlos Correa<\/a> has been at third most days but has also taken over at short a few times to give Pe\u00f1a a day off. Isaac Paredes<\/a> has slotted in at third when Correa has been at short and has also taken some time as the designated hitter when Yordan Alvarez<\/a> is the DH.<\/p>\n

With Pe\u00f1a now on the shelf for a bit, it\u2019s possible the Astros could stabilize things by having Correa at short regularly, allowing Paredes to cover third on an everyday basis. That would mean less time in the field for Alvarez.<\/p>\n

Losing Imai is potentially more impactful, even though he\u2019s less established in the big leagues than Pe\u00f1a. Most of Houston\u2019s injuries have been on the pitching side, so another domino falling there is worrisome. Both Hunter Brown<\/a> and Cristian Javier<\/a> have been felled by shoulder strains in recent weeks and now Imai is also on the shelf.<\/p>\n

Losing three starting pitchers in quick succession is never good but it\u2019s particularly poor timing in this case. The Astros are three games into a stretch of playing 13 in a row. They had planned to use a six-man rotation to get through that stretch, at least in part to accommodate Imai. Pitchers in Japan normally pitch once a week, as opposed to the five-day rotation that is common in North America. Using six starters for the 13 straight games would have helped Imai stay on a schedule he\u2019s accustomed to while he\u2019s still new to Major League Baseball.<\/p>\n

Imai started on Friday in Seattle but didn\u2019t make it out of the first inning. He walked the first two batters, allowed a single, threw a wild pitch, walked another batter, hit a guy with a pitch, induced a groundout and then walked another batter. He had already thrown 37 pitches and had recorded just one out when the Astros pulled him. The next day, he left the team for Houston to undergo testing for his fatigue. There\u2019s no real information about his status but the Astros will proceed without him for at least a couple of weeks.<\/p>\n

France, Ryan Weiss<\/a> and Steven Okert<\/a> combined to absorb 6 2\/3 innings after Imai departed, with Enyel De Los Santos<\/a> throwing in an inning as well. France was then optioned with Murray recalled. Lance McCullers Jr.<\/a> took the ball on Saturday and lasted 4 1\/3, with five relievers pitching after him. Yesterday, Cody Bolton<\/a> started but only lasted one inning before he was removed due to back tightness. Murray pitched two innings in relief and Christian Roa<\/a> took on 2 2\/3, while two other relievers pitched shorter outings.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s already been quite a taxing few days for the club, with still ten games to go before their next day off. Mike Burrows<\/a> is starting today\u2019s game. After that, it\u2019s fairly up in the air. Weiss, France and Roa are somewhat stretched out from their recent long relief work and could chip in. Spencer Arrighetti<\/a>, Miguel Ullola<\/a> and Jason Alexander<\/a> are on optional assignment and could be recalled, though Alexander just threw six innings at Triple-A yesterday while Ullola threw 2 2\/3 on Saturday. Arrighetti\u2019s last outing was six innings on April 9th, so he could be next up.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Troy Taormina, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Astros announced that they have placed infielder Jeremy Pe\u00f1a on the 10-day injured list with a grade…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":582168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[208916,254785,255134,40897,255135,99,149619],"class_list":{"0":"post-582167","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-colton-gordon","9":"tag-j-p-france","10":"tag-jayden-murray","11":"tag-jeremy-pena","12":"tag-shay-whitcomb","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-tatsuya-imai"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/582168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}