The Twins plan to place Pablo López on the 15-day injured list, manager Rocco Baldelli tells reporters (including Bobby Nightengale of The Minnesota Star-Tribune and Dan Hayes of The Athletic). Minnesota’s Opening Day starter was diagnosed with a Grade One strain of his right hamstring.
A Grade One strain is the least severe. Baldelli indicated the Twins are hopeful that López will be back after a minimal IL stay. He suffered the injury during last night’s appearance in Kansas City. López needed to depart after 4 2/3 innings and 78 pitches. He went for an MRI today which revealed the mild strain. It halts a very strong start to the season. López has allowed six runs (three earned) with 14 strikeouts and two walks over 16 2/3 frames.
This will be the first injured list stint for López since the Twins acquired him from Miami in the swap for Luis Arraez during the 2022-23 offseason. He’s made all 32 starts in each of the past three seasons, in fact. López combined for 379 1/3 innings of 3.87 ERA ball over his first two years in the Twin Cities. He ranked eight in MLB in innings and tied for sixth in starts during that stretch.
The Twins blanked K.C. tonight behind an excellent start from Joe Ryan. They nevertheless have a 4-8 record. Their rotation entered play Wednesday with an MLB-worst 6.26 earned run average. López and Ryan have been excellent, but each of Simeon Woods Richardson, Chris Paddack and Bailey Ober have been hit hard through two starts.
Minnesota hasn’t had the luxury of many early-season off days. Tomorrow will be the halfway point of a stretch of 12 straight game days between April 5-16. Ober will pitch in the series finale with Kansas City. Paddack and Woods Richardson would line up for the first two starts of their weekend set in Detroit. They’ll need someone to step into López’s spot on Sunday.
Zebby Matthews and David Festa are each highly-regarded young pitchers who made their big league debuts last season. Neither player had much success as rookies, but they’re more talented than the sixth and seventh starters for a lot of teams. Matthews, who would be on regular rest for Sunday, has been excellent through his first two turns in Triple-A. He has punched out 13 against one walk while firing 10 innings of two-run ball. Festa has an 8:2 strikeout-to-walk ratio while giving up five earned runs in 8 1/3 frames. If the Twins want to keep both youngsters in the minors, they could reselect swingman Randy Dobnak after running him through outright waivers last week.