It hasn’t passed the House yet. The Senate version differs and still needs to pass the House to go to TFG for signature.
I believe it gets passed in the House.
I actually believe this year’s version of Pena is closer to what you will get for some of the early years of his next contract. He has been on a multi year project to rebuild his swing and it’s all coming together.
The Astros have a lot of money coming off the books after this season (Abreu, Montero, Framber and Pressly).
With the state of the farm system, they can’t let Pena walk for nothing. When the Astros let all of the other free agents leave, there was always a replacement plan in place. At this point, they will need to sign free agents to keep this going.
At some point, you have to sign some of your players. There isn’t a Jeremy Pena waiting in the minor leagues this time unless you are a believer in Matthews.
So he can give up the lead again? The Angels are hitting him hard. Use the bullpen and the day off tomorrow and get out of here with a win using the getaway day lineup.
Paxton’s last primary in 2022 is interesting. He ended up winning the runoff with the younger Bush. Arguably the Gohmert voters in the primary are likely Paxton voters and those votes would have eliminated the need for a runoff. If I was placing a wager, I would put it on Paxton, but 57% of the 2022 primary voters wanted someone other than the lazy-eyed philandering pen thief.