Minneapolis – Pablo López woke up Saturday morning feeling a little more optimistic when his right forearm wasn’t as sore as the night before. He had exited his start on Friday early after awkwardly landing on his right forearm following a throw to first base to get the out.
He immediately assumed the worst, thinking he may need Tommy John surgery again. However, López’s MRI results came back clean, alleviating his worst fears.
López returned to Target Field for game two of the Minnesota Twins’ doubleheader against the Cleveland Guardians, and they officially placed him on the IL with a right mid-forearm strain. If the injury had come down in mid-June, López only missed two turns in the rotation. However, given the Twins have only six games remaining, there was no need to rush him back.
“One of the ways we put it is off-season starts today,” López said. “Obviously, I’m going to be with the team, I’m going to be moving around, I’m going to be making myself useful in any way. But I should be able to, whenever I decide to start throwing again, to get my off-season progression and build up going.”
“I wouldn’t call it good news, but it’s probably one of the best outcomes we could have hoped for,” said Twins manager Rocco Baldelli. “We sent him, he gets looked at, it’s a minor stain, kind of mid-forearm. Not anywhere that he’d be troubled by seeing, and we think that if it wasn’t at this point in the season, that he’d be able to go out there and pitch in, not have too long of a time off.”
It’s encouraging for López and the Twins that he has the all-clear to enter the off-season. The injury won’t linger, and he can go through a relatively normal offseason.
“Usually, I map my off-season out [but I’m] reverse engineering it,” said López. “So, like if I know we’re going to be in Fort Myers on February 10, ‘Okay, I like showing up to Fort Myers having thrown two live BPs.’
“Before I throw those two live BPs, I like throwing six bullpens. So I’ll map it out, and then I’ll come back to it, and then a result of moving the count down is, ‘Okay, this is when I’m going to start throwing.”
He won’t be throwing any bullpens before the postseason is over, so López has plenty of time to reflect on how the 2025 season went for him. Despite only having six starts between his rehab assignment and being back with the Twins, López was happy with the results he had on the mound after missing so much time due to his shoulder injury.
“The one yesterday was, I hope, I would imagine that if I didn’t end up getting hurt, it would end up being in the quality start category,” said López. “But that was definitely encouraging that I was able to go over that hurdle of, even though I was out for a couple months. The conviction still allowed me to execute quality pitches and making sure I was prepared. I was doing everything I possibly can to do everything I can do on the mound.”
When healthy, López was arguably Minnesota’s best starter this year. He had a 2.74 ERA in 75 ⅔ innings, posted a 1.11 WHIP, struck out 73 batters, and walked 20 over 14 starts. But López never really got the chance to accomplish the goal he wanted to all season, making his first half of the season as dominant as the second half has been during the first two years in a Twins uniform.
Last season, López had a dominant 2.77 ERA and eight home runs allowed in 81 ⅓ innings over 13 starts down the stretch, a vast improvement from the 5.11 ERA and 18 home runs allowed in 104 innings over 19 starts. López was far from Minnesota’s best starter in the first half of 2024, but combining his last 27 starts, he’s combined for a 2.77 ERA over 156 innings with 153 strikeouts and 38 walks.
“My goal for this year was I [wanted] to have the first half that I know I can have, so it matches the second half that I’ve been having the last few years,” said López. “Before I went down with the shoulder, I thought I was having the first half, so going down with the shoulder was a big hit for that goal to prove to myself that I can be consistent for 32 and not just for the last 15 or something like that.”
The combined numbers between July 2024 and the end of this year are not only encouraging for López but also the Twins, knowing they’ll still retain their No. 1 starter going into the off-season.
Minnesota may trade López this offseason to shed $21.75 million from the payroll. However, there’s hope that either he or Joe Ryan will still be with the team in spring training next year, ready to lead a young pitching staff to a better season.