If you’re a Houston Astros fan, you’re used to the career arc of star-level, homegrown talent. They arrive in the big leagues, they contribute heavily to winning, and after six seasons, they move on in free agency. Put simply, if you’ve bought the jersey of a player not named “ALTUVE” in the last several years, there’s a good chance that player is gone.

Counting chronologically backwards, it goes Bregman, Tucker (traded), Correa, Springer. The list is about to include Framer Valdez in six months. It’s painful, but the team keeps winning, so that mitigates the pain. However, reminder during the season of this cycle bring unnecessary pain, and that’s why it was rough seeing the news this week that shortstop Jeremy Pena has switched to super agent Scott Boras for his contractual representation.

For some context, Boras has a long history of representing Astros players. Sometimes, it’s worked out fine (Jose Altuve). Most of the time, it ends in sadness and longing (Alex Bregman, most recently). That Pena is joining Hunter Brown, who flipped to Boras a year ago, as Astros who seek Boras’ services in the midst of a breakout season, would indicate that they intend to follow Bregman’s path, hitting free agency when the time comes.

In fact, Ari Alexander of KPRC reported on Wednesday that the Astros and Pena were fairly far down the road on a five-year, $105 million contract extension, before Pena decided to flip over to Boras for his representation. Yikes! So with Pena’s future as an Astro hanging in the balance (sort of), here are a few thoughts on this very important matter:

Keep in mind, Boras works for Pena, so it’s about what Pena wants
Most of the time, when Boras has represented a prominent Astro, it’s ended in disappointment, but as I mentioned above, Jose Altuve is an exception to that rule. Altuve wanted to stay in Houston on a team friendly deal, and tasked Boras with getting that done on his behalf. Boras did. Lance McCullers is another Boras client who wanted to stay in Houston, so Boras made that happen. I only bring this up to remind Astro fans that this isn’t a definite eventual one way ticket out for Pena. Boras clients have stayed before. I think the heavy favorite is Pena’s leaving, but we shall see.

Pena still has two years of team control left after 2025
While this news hits home (in a bad way) right now, this isn’t a pressing, burning issue that affects the Astros’ 2025 season. Pena is putting up career numbers at the plate and is playing Gold Glove defense, so enjoy that! Pena is still under team control for two more seasons, as he will be eligible for salary arbitration after this season and after the 2026 season. As he ascends to All Star status, though, even those salary numbers in arbitration will be fairly large. It begs the question….

What if the Kyle Tucker trade is a trend?
…would the Astros trade Pena, like they did Kyle Tucker, with a year of team control still remaining? Prior to the 2025 season, Astros GM Dana Brown, knowing Kyle Tucker would command an 8 to 10 year deal in free agency after this season, decided to send Tucker to Chicago for Isaac Paredes, Cam Smith, and Hayden Wesneski. That trade has worked out well for the Astros, as Paredes should be an All Star at third base, and the rookie Smith has had a very stellar rookie season. More often than not, the Astros let their homegrown players stick around all the way up to their free agency walk year, but maybe Tucker begins a trend where the Astros look to reload their farm system with young studs and MLB roster with less expensive players.

What are the contract years of the Astros’ key players?
In case you’re wondering about when exactly we are going to need to worry about these types of things with other prominent Astro players, here are the timelines of the players that are part of the core nucleus:

Signed / under team control through 2025
SP Framer Valdez

Signed / under team control through 2026
SP Lance McCullers
RP Bryan Abreu

Signed / under team control through 2027
SS Jeremy Pena
SP Cristian Javier
1B Christian Walker
3B Isaac Paredes
CF Jake Meyers

Signed / under team control through 2028
DH/LF Yordan Alvarez
C Yainer Diaz
SP Hunter Brown
RP Josh Hader

Signed / under team control through 2029
2B/LF Jose Altuve

I don’t know why I even list Altuve. I feel like, as long as he can walk, he will be a Houston Astro. I wish I could say the same thing about Pena.

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