{"id":584630,"date":"2026-02-21T10:36:27","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T10:36:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/584630\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T10:36:27","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T10:36:27","slug":"pablo-lopez-to-have-season-ending-tommy-john-surgery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/584630\/","title":{"rendered":"Pablo L\u00f3pez to have season-ending Tommy John surgery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">As many suspected once the news of Pablo L\u00f3pez\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.twinkietown.com\/minnesota-twins-news\/51200\/pablo-lopez-tears-elbow-ligament-season-ending-surgery-on-the-table\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ligament tear<\/a> broke, the right-hander\u2019s season is over.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">One day into the 2026 season, the Twins lost their #1 starter to an elbow injury during live batting practice. L\u00f3pez will now spend the season recovering after doctors reconstruct his elbow.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">In terms of roster construction, this immediately knocks askew any perceptions of trying to win with this roster constructed from pockets sewn shallow. Joe Ryan, who spent last year in Cy Young contention, stays at the top of the rotation unless or until he gets traded; behind him, the Twins have a handful of back-of-rotation players, at least one of which now have to elevate their play if the team hopes to, as ownership insists, win with the guys they have.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">We\u2019ve already discussed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.twinkietown.com\/minnesota-twins-daily-question\/51217\/should-the-twins-sign-a-free-agent-sp-or-trust-their-depth\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">on the site<\/a> the different options Minnesota has to fill out their rotation, whether through elevated an untested player or bringing in someone still on the market. But whichever option the front office chooses, the team now lacks one of their best players, an energetic fan favorite.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The news of L\u00f3pez\u2019s surgery was not a surprise, but to all Twins fans, it was a disappointment, and fewer and fewer will be looking forward to the 2026 season. It\u2019s still baseball, but the excitement that comes with spring has faded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As many suspected once the news of Pablo L\u00f3pez\u2019s ligament tear broke, the right-hander\u2019s season is over. One&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2388],"tags":[5,822,60,26610,3190,4,151,148],"class_list":{"0":"post-584630","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-minnesota-twins-news","12":"tag-minnesotatwins","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-spring-training","15":"tag-twins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116108183796446774","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584630","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=584630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}