Starting pitcher Pablo Lopez, who has won 31 games over three seasons for the Twins, including a 15-10 mark in 2024, and who played a huge role in snapping the club’s long playoff drought, is effectively gone after it was announced he will undergo Tommy John surgery and miss the entire 2026 season.
Some might be wondering: Why the fare-thee-well to Lopez? Isn’t he still a Twin? He certainly is, but he won’t be playing this season and there are big questions about how much or whether any baseball will be played at all in 2027.
That’s because the collective bargaining agreement expires later this year, which is likely to be followed by a lockout because of one central issue: a salary cap.
Baseball doesn’t have one. The owners want it and I happen to agree with them — I’m looking at you Los Angeles Dodgers — but the players, of course, are happy making as much money as possible. That’s fine for the biggest and wealthiest teams in baseball, but that does no favors for teams like the Miami Marlins, Tampa Bay Rays or the West Sacramento A’s, or whatever you want to call them.
The Twins aren’t exactly the Marlins, but place them alongside the Dodgers and they might as well be because the economic differences are pretty stark. A level playing field currently does not exist in baseball.
If Lopez is healthy in 2027, I expect the Twins will trade him. If he makes it to free agency with no change in scenery, I do not expect the Twins to re-sign him.
Lopez came to Minnesota in exchange for three-time batting champ Luis Arraez. Has Lopez lived up to that trade? In large part, yes. He pitched to a 3.66 ERA across 194 innings with 234 strikeouts and was named an All-Star in 2023. He also knocked off the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 1 of the AL Wild Card series, the team’s first post-season win in 18 previous tries.
There were other standout moments. On July 5, 2023, the Kansas City Royals didn’t know what hit them after Lopez pitched a complete game four-hitter with 12 strikeouts in a 5-0 win.
“For a full season, 32-plus starts a year, there are only a handful of games where you feel you have a handle on all of your pitches,” Lopez told the Star Tribune. “Tonight was one of those nights.”
Extra innings…
–While the Twins figure out how to replace Lopez in the rotation, they got back to baseball on Saturday and lost to the Boston Red Sox, 7-2, in their first Grapefruit League action. Royce Lewis homered and singled and Luke Keaschall tripled in the loss.
It was a tough day for top prospect and shortstop Kaelen Culpepper, who committed one of four errors in the game. He also struggled with a short hop in front of the bag that got through and into the outfield, allowing a runner to advance. The good news, though? Baseball is back.
Source: Newspapers.com