{"id":580070,"date":"2026-02-18T23:12:39","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T23:12:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/580070\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T23:12:39","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T23:12:39","slug":"finding-solace-in-the-wake-of-pablo-lopezs-bad-news-twins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/580070\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding Solace in the Wake of Pablo L\u00f3pez’s Bad News – Twins"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tTwins spring training started with a thud on Monday. All of the customary positive energy and vibes from the opening rally cries and first full-squad workout were dampened by Pablo L\u00f3pez<\/a>‘s ominous report of elbow soreness. He underwent an MRI and on Tuesday we learned that its results confirmed, essentially, the worst: L\u00f3pez has “significant tearing” in his UCL and is almost certainly headed for season-ending Tommy John\u00a0surgery.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThere’s no downplaying the catastrophic impact on whatever slim chances this year’s Twins team had to contend in the AL Central. L\u00f3pez is arguably their best player, and his absence will leave a huge void atop a rotation that needed to be Minnesota’s carrying strength if they were to take the league by surprise.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tIn my opinion, though, that was already a pretty substantial long shot. And it’s not just my opinion: Even with a healthy L\u00f3pez, the Twins had a Vegas over\/under of 73.5 wins, and I don’t think any projection system pegged them as even a .500 team. The bullpen and lineup challenges will be so much to overcome. The emerging young core hasn’t quite arrived. As I wrote in my overview of the organization’s talent landscape<\/a>, 2027 feels like the most realistic target for any type of short-term contention.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd through that lens, maybe the L\u00f3pez news doesn’t feel quite so dire.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n\tLook at it this way. The best-case scenario this year for L\u00f3pez was a fully healthy rebound that saw him reliably take the mound every fifth day and resume pitching like a frontline starter. Those efforts would’ve probably gone to waste on a Twins team that lacks the offensive strength and bullpen to win regularly, so the odds of L\u00f3pez being traded in this scenario \u2014 at the deadline or after the season \u2014 seem pretty high.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n\tBut now, if he misses the entire season, L\u00f3pez is all but assured of being back in 2027, albeit probably with a slightly delayed start. This would enable him to potentially support a more developed, well-constructed team with actual championship aspirations.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n\tOf course, with the CBA about to expire and labor tensions already running high, there’s a distinct possibility that a lockout could wipe out some or all of the 2027 season. That’d be a bummer for the Twins and their timeline but look at it from L\u00f3pez’s perspective: He’ll miss out on some or all of his salary in the final year of his contract, and he’ll be staring down free agency as a 32-year-old with little production to showcase from the past three years, and maybe not a single pitch thrown in the past two.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tIt’s a sobering reality for the right-hander, who has built up an impressive r\u00e9sum\u00e9 that includes an All-Star appearance, playoff success, and \u2014 previously \u2014 a pretty good track record for durability (he ranked seventh in the majors in IP from 2022 through 2024). He faces a great deal of uncertainty as he stares down a lengthy recovery from his second Tommy John surgery, and an ensuing lockout.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThis opens the door for a mutually beneficial contract extension that would give L\u00f3pez some long-term stability and peace of mind, while theoretically securing his services post-2027 at a very favorable value. I’m not sure exactly what terms would make sense for both sides but I’m very interested in a multi-year extension that locks up, say, his age 32-through-34 seasons (2028 through 2030) for somewhere in the range of $15-20 million annually.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n\tIt wouldn’t exactly be new ground for the Twins, who signed Michael Pineda<\/a> as a free agent and Chris Paddack<\/a> to an extension under similar circumstances, albeit at a smaller scale. Results have been mixed in past instances. But with his legendary work ethic and exceptional talent, I have little doubt L\u00f3pez will eventually come back strong from this latest setback, and I love the idea of entrenching him as an ongoing veteran rotation leader for whatever team emerges out of the current “reset.”\n<\/p>\n

\n\tIf Tom Pohlad wants to make a demonstrable investment in the future success of the team, this would be a good way to do it, and it’s also a very sensible baseball decision for a franchise that seems destined to compete on middling payrolls. It’s the kind of move that probably wouldn’t have been possible if L\u00f3pez had a healthy, stellar season this year and either got traded or priced himself out of Minnesota’s comfort zone.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tIs this all a bit of mental gymnastics? Probably. It\u2019s never good when your ace blows out his elbow and a season that already felt tenuous suddenly tilts further toward irrelevance. There\u2019s real pain in losing L\u00f3pez for a year \u2014 for the clubhouse, for the fans, and especially for him.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tBut as someone who genuinely loves watching Pablo L\u00f3pez pitch \u2014 the craft, the intensity, the professionalism \u2014 the idea of trading one lost year for several meaningful ones on the other side is the only silver lining I can muster right now. If 2026 was always unlikely to be the year anyway, maybe the best outcome is ensuring L\u00f3pez is still here when the window actually opens.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s a stretch, sure. It requires patience, optimism and a front office willing to act boldly. But at a moment when the short-term outlook just got a lot bleaker, betting on L\u00f3pez being part of the next good Twins team feels like something worth holding onto.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Twins spring training started with a thud on Monday. All of the customary positive energy and vibes from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580071,"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-580070","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\/116094169765728619","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580070","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=580070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}