{"id":578669,"date":"2026-02-18T04:38:24","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T04:38:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/578669\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T04:38:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T04:38:24","slug":"how-will-the-twins-handle-life-without-pablo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/578669\/","title":{"rendered":"How Will the Twins Handle Life Without Pablo?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fort Myers \u2013 The Minnesota Twins are likely going to be without Pablo L\u00f3pez<\/a> for all of 2026. On Monday, an MRI revealed a significant tear in his right elbow following a live bullpen session.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor it to come down in one pitch is a little disheartening,\u201d L\u00f3pez said, \u201cbut it\u2019s a reality of being a baseball player, an athlete in general.\u201d<\/p>\n

L\u00f3pez, 29, still expects to get a second opinion with Dr. Keith Meister in Texas soon. However, L\u00f3pez will likely opt to undergo another Tommy John<\/a> surgery and miss the entire 2026 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we work through that, regardless of exactly which procedure it is, if Pablo goes down a surgical route, he would miss the entire 2026 season,\u201d said Twins GM Jeremy Zoll. \u201cObviously, it\u2019s really disappointing news. You really feel for Pablo. As everyone knows, his work ethic, how much he cares about his body, his preparation is second to none.\u201d<\/p>\n

L\u00f3pez knows it will be a long rehab process.<\/p>\n

\u201cI consider myself being very in tune with my body, also with my mind, and I know it\u2019s a hard place to be rehabbing something that you know it\u2019s not going to regenerate itself,\u201d he said. \u201cForeign tissues, such as a graft that came from my hamstring to my elbow 12 years ago, it\u2019s not going to regenerate itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

The potential of losing L\u00f3pez for the entire 2026 season is a blow to Minnesota\u2019s starting rotation and clubhouse. He will still be present if he is recovering from surgery. Still, there\u2019s the lingering absence of what L\u00f3pez can do on the mound for a Twins team trying to bounce back from a down 2025 season.<\/p>\n

L\u00f3pez told fellow starting pitcher Joe Ryan<\/a> about the tear in his elbow on Tuesday morning, and it left Ryan at a bit of a loss for words.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything\u2019s getting rolling and the expectation and stuff, and then just having him go down like that,\u201d said Ryan. \u201cYeah, it\u2019s tough. I hope there\u2019s some hope with the second opinion, but at the same time, yeah. It\u2019s just not a good sign, regardless.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, new manager Derek Shelton<\/a> has lost one of his best pitchers early in camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m still getting to know him and developing a relationship with him,\u201d said Shelton. \u201cThe most important thing that he can get from any of us, myself included, is just support.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we just need to find out more information, find out more clarity in this case,\u201d he added. \u201cBut obviously you feel for the person, because I don\u2019t know if we have anybody in our clubhouse that takes care of himself the way he does, and it\u2019s unfortunate something like this happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

L\u00f3pez missed significant time in 2025 due to a right teres major muscle strain<\/a>, which forced him to exit his start early in Sacramento on June 3. He missed half the season but was able to make three starts in September, only to land on the IL with a mild forearm strain.<\/p>\n

The MRI at the time showed no significant tear in his elbow. Still, given that pitchers typically have six years before the new ligament in their elbow from their first Tommy John surgery begins to wear down, L\u00f3pez doubled the expected timeline. He made it 12 years before a \u2018significant tear\u2019 showed up in his right elbow, which made him seem like the exception ot the rule.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember when I first got my first surgery, people would tell me these things come with an expiration date,\u201d L\u00f3pez said. \u201cSome guys have it, and sometimes they may have to have it four or five or six years. Once I cleared the six-year mark in 2019, I was like, \u2018Maybe I\u2019m the exception.\u2019 I mean, I was to some to some extent.\u201d<\/p>\n

If L\u00f3pez opts to undergo a second Tommy John surgery in the coming weeks, then it can at least set him up for a return by May 2027. As much as he and the Twins would love a silver lining that reveals options to avoid a second surgery, they also want to consider the longevity of his career beyond 2026. It\u2019s that sliver of hope that helps L\u00f3pez look on the bright side of a bad situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, trying to navigate a lot of emotions, there\u2019s the side of me, the teammate wants to be there, wants to be a part of it, and say other options, like what does this mean timeline-wise,\u201d he said. \u201cOr what it\u2019s going to mean for the future, the rest of the career, so just trying to navigate that stuff right now, all the different aspects. So that will be a little easier to navigate all the scenarios once we know the second opinion, and then we come up with a plan.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fort Myers \u2013 The Minnesota Twins are likely going to be without Pablo L\u00f3pez for all of 2026.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2388],"tags":[5,822,60,3190,4,1997,148],"class_list":{"0":"post-578669","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-twins","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-minnesota","10":"tag-minnesota-twins","11":"tag-minnesotatwins","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-pablo-lopez","14":"tag-twins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116089789136475381","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}