Jeremy Peña’s rookie major-league season ended Saturday night with the unimaginable. The unthinkable.
The kid from Providence is the Most Valuable Player of the World Series.
MVP!
“This is what we dream about,” the 25-year-old Astros shortstop exclaimed after accepting the Willie Mays MVP Trophy during post-game ceremonies at Houston’s Minute Maid Park.
Dream about? How about hallucinate? How about letting his imagination run away with him?
Peña had just led the Astros to a 4-1 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies and a 4-2 triumph in the World Series. He singled twice and scored a run in Game 6.
He hit .400 (10-for-25) in the six games with a home run and three runs batted in. He was on first base in the bottom of the sixth when Yordan Alvarez launched a towering 450-foot, three-run homer to center field that trumped Kyle Schwarber’s leadoff home run in the top of the sixth. Peña raised his right fist as he circled the bases behind Jose Altuve ahead of Alvarez.
“My job was to get on base and pass it to the next guy,” he said.
Pass it on, indeed!
Every time Peña batted in Game 6, the capacity crowd chanted “MVP! MVP!”
Peña also played flawless defense, but as he has all season, he put the team’s accomplishments ahead of his own.
“That’s the trophy we want right there,” he said, glancing to his right at the Commissioner’s Trophy, emblematic of the World Series champion. “Put the camera on it right there.”
The World Series recognition followed the MVP award he received for his performance in the American League Championship Series. Last week he received a Gold Glove for his outstanding defense, the first rookie shortstop so honored.
Peña is the ninth player in MLB history to win League Championship and World Series MVP. The others are Willie Stargell of the Pirates in 1979, Darrell Porter of the Cardinals in 1982, Orel Hershiser of the Dodgers in 1988, Livan Hernandez of the Marlines in 1997, Cole Hamels of the Phillies in 2008, David Freese of the Cardinals in 2011, Madison Bumgarner of the Giants in 2014, and Corey Seager of the Dodgers in 2020.
Hernandez and Peña are the only rookies on the list.
Peña will never forget this season. He took over as the starting shortstop in spring training after free agent Carlos Correa signed a $105-million contract with the Twins. He hit .253 with 22 home runs during the regular season and .353 (6-17) with two homers and two doubles in Houston’s sweep of the Yankees in the ALCS. In the A.L.Division Series against Seattle, he led off the top of the 18th inning with a home run, completing a sweep of the Mariners.
Houston manager Dusty Baker, another great story in that he won his first World Series ring as a manager after 25 years, praised his young shortstop, and especially his parents for doing “a heck of a job raising a fine young man.”
And to think the 2022 World Series Most Valuable Player played shortstop for Classical High School in Providence and the University of Maine in Orono.
Unimaginable? Unthinkable? Not now.