Pablo Lopez Leaves First Full Squad Workout with Elbow Soreness

[amjgt]

10 minutes ago, bunsen82 said:

He averaged a shade over 5 innings last year.   Along with a 2.0 WAR and a 7-4 W/L record.  Too bad we didn't have more SWR last season maybe we would have had a winning record.  

Piggybacking this...

After getting called back up, he went 5 innings or more in 10 of his 15 starts

[howeda7]

1 hour ago, DJL44 said:

They already did that

Fair but it's Minnesota Sports, it can always be worse. 

[howeda7]

Tom Pohlad has a chance to put his $$ where his mouth is. Go sign Giolito. 

[NJM]

why do the baseball gods hate us?

 

[Parfigliano]

1 hour ago, NJM said:

why do the baseball gods hate us?

 

Maybe the gods hate the Pohlads not us.

[Twodogs]

3 hours ago, bunsen82 said:

He averaged a shade over 5 innings last year.   Along with a 2.0 WAR and a 7-4 W/L record.  Too bad we didn't have more SWR last season maybe we would have had a winning record.  

That's odd, I have him averaging like 4.83 innings per game?  He does tax the bullpen, but im not totally sure thats his fault or if it was Rocco's and Falvey's doing?  He typically does ok, you'd think he could go another inning?

[Twodogs]

6 hours ago, Post-Concussive Blues said:

Mattingly! Shave those sideburns!!!

[RaoulDuke]

8 hours ago, DJL44 said:

Losing Pablo right now should trigger trades of Joe Ryan, Ryan Jeffers and Byron Buxton before the season begins.

The sentiment makes sense but they are past that window now.

Teams have mostly set their rosters and major trades are way less likely to happen until the deadline.  Maybe if someone else loses an ace they come for Ryan but even then they have the upper hand as the competition in demand just isn't there to drive the price up.

This is just a kick in nuts for a team starting on the ropes and their isn't much they can do about it. 

Ryan/ Ober/ Bradley/ SWR probably all but set now, Zebby/ Festa/ Abel fighting for the 5th spot (though I still think Festa is pen bound).

[HerbieFan]

And such is the life of a Minnesota sports fan....

[D.C Twins]

But... but... he was in the best shape of his life!

Quick question...if everybody works harder than anyone else in the offseason, would it be more instructive for TD to track down the anyone else and report back to us?

[Rosterman]

I wonder if this puts the ka-bosh on himn pitching in the World Baseball Classic. One reason WHY the Twins need to make him available for trade once he shows he can pitch. The team can't afford to get just 8-15 starts out of him for another season.

Sadly he didn't have the strongest off-season trade value, due to being out half-of-2025.

[mrtwinsfan]

7 hours ago, bunsen82 said:

He averaged a shade over 5 innings last year.   Along with a 2.0 WAR and a 7-4 W/L record.  Too bad we didn't have more SWR last season maybe we would have had a winning record.  

[Major League Ready]

8 hours ago, RaoulDuke said:

The sentiment makes sense but they are past that window now.

Teams have mostly set their rosters and major trades are way less likely to happen until the deadline.  Maybe if someone else loses an ace they come for Ryan but even then they have the upper hand as the competition in demand just isn't there to drive the price up.

This is just a kick in nuts for a team starting on the ropes and their isn't much they can do about it. 

Ryan/ Ober/ Bradley/ SWR probably all but set now, Zebby/ Festa/ Abel fighting for the 5th spot (though I still think Festa is pen bound).

Yep.  That ship sailed around the time when Gore and Peralta were traded. Assuming they don't make the playoffs which is a fair assumption, and Ryan/Lopez lose significant trade value via injury, this decision will go down as monumentally incompetent.   

[Riverbrian]

I was sleeping in med school. This could be something it could be nothing but this was always a question of who and a question of when... it was never an "if" question. 

Multiple players are going to get hurt in 2026. Not just pitchers. 

Every year prior to this one. Is proof that multiple players will get hurt in 2026.

Every year and every team in baseball is proof beyond a shadow of a doubt. We don't know who and we don't know when but it is going to happen, somewhere, somehow, someway. 

Logan Webb throwing 200 innings every year is a pretty rare accomplishment. Finding another pitcher with Webbish durability is extremely hard let alone finding three more to round out your rotation.

In 2025... In all of MLB. 70 pitchers eclipsed 150 innings. Of those 70 that eclipsed 150 innings... 29  of them had ERA's higher than league average which shows that even if you find durability above average doesn't always come with it

This Pablo thing may be something... it may be nothing... however... If Tom Pohlad, or anyone on this site was thinking that we got Ryan and Lopez so lets build around them. Oops!. That plan may not even make it out of February. 

Team success in 2026 was always going to depend on SWR, Matthews, Abel, Bradley, Festa ETC. anyway. 

 

[Twins_Fan_in_NJ]

56 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

I was sleeping in med school. This could be something it could be nothing but this was always a question of who and a question of when... it was never an "if" question. 

Multiple players are going to get hurt in 2026. Not just pitchers. 

Every year prior to this one. Is proof that multiple players will get hurt in 2026.

Every year and every team in baseball is proof beyond a shadow of a doubt. We don't know who and we don't know when but it is going to happen, somewhere, somehow, someway. 

Logan Webb throwing 200 innings every year is a pretty rare accomplishment. Finding another pitcher with Webbish durability is extremely hard let alone finding three more to round out your rotation.

In 2025... In all of MLB. 70 pitchers eclipsed 150 innings. Of those 70 that eclipsed 150 innings... 29  of them had ERA's higher than league average which shows that even if you find durability above average doesn't always come with it

This Pablo thing may be something... it may be nothing... however... If Tom Pohlad, or anyone on this site was thinking that we got Ryan and Lopez so lets build around them. Oops!. That plan may not even make it out of February. 

Team success in 2026 was always going to depend on SWR, Matthews, Abel, Bradley, Festa ETC. anyway. 

 

I tend to agree with this.

[Twins_Fan_in_NJ]

RE Giolito...

Meh.

Not seeing the appeal other than that he's a 'name' and one that is likely on the downside of his career. Would be better off going with Matthews or Abel and giving them a full season's look. The Twins' young players have to take that next step eventually or things are going to get much worse.

[DJL44]

1 hour ago, Riverbrian said:

If Tom Pohlad, or anyone on this site was thinking that we got Ryan and Lopez so lets build around them. Oops!. That plan may not even make it out of February. 

Team success in 2026 was always going to depend on SWR, Matthews, Abel, Bradley, Festa ETC. anyway. 

Which is why the plan was doomed from the start. Run back the same roster plus a decent catcher, a bad first baseman and some mediocre middle relievers and somehow win 15 games more than they did last season. If Pablo is out for the season, you can knock 3 wins off the rosy 80-win projection for 2026. That cuts their playoff odds in half.

[Parfigliano]

1 hour ago, Twins_Fan_in_NJ said:

I tend to agree with this.

Sleeping in med school?

[Dman]

23 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

Which is why the plan was doomed from the start. Run back the same roster plus a decent catcher, a bad first baseman and some mediocre middle relievers and somehow win 15 games more than they did last season. If Pablo is out for the season, you can knock 3 wins off the rosy 80-win projection for 2026. That cuts their playoff odds in half.

I agree if he is out that would be a huge blow for competing this year.  The other thing not mentioned is how much can we depend on Ober this year with his Velo declining and another year older if he can't perform to expectations things get even worse.  

I like Bradley, Mathews and Abel, but odds are it takes time for them to adjust and one or more could fail to be effective as well.  Pablo is a huge key to trying to turn this team around.  Not saying they can't be successful without him, but it sure gets a lot harder given the rotation was supposed to be the one strength this team had given all the uncertainty everywhere else on the roster. Without him it feels like their is nothing to lean on.

[Twins_Fan_in_NJ]

5 minutes ago, Dman said:

I agree if he is out that would be a huge blow for competing this year.  The other thing not mentioned is how much can we depend on Ober this year with his Velo declining and another year older if he can't perform to expectations things get even worse.  

I like Bradley, Mathews and Abel, but odds are it takes time for them to adjust and one or more could fail to be effective as well.  Pablo is a huge key to trying to turn this team around.  Not saying they can't be successful without him, but it sure gets a lot harder given the rotation was supposed to be the one strength this team had given all the uncertainty everywhere else on the roster. Without him it feels like their is nothing to lean on.

Yeah, Ober is a concern. I have more faith in SWR at this point than Ober...

[Riverbrian]

1 hour ago, DJL44 said:

Which is why the plan was doomed from the start. Run back the same roster plus a decent catcher, a bad first baseman and some mediocre middle relievers and somehow win 15 games more than they did last season. If Pablo is out for the season, you can knock 3 wins off the rosy 80-win projection for 2026. That cuts their playoff odds in half.

In this regard. 

The pitching doesn't worry me as much. I get it... Lopez and Ryan continuing to be Lopez and Ryan are vital because those are two very capable pitchers but at least we got a big group of replacements with potential that were going to be utilized at some point anyway during the 2026 season.   

The Infield on the other hand. Uff Da... we don't have near the talent level to absorb injuries or poor performance at every position. We are sitting with three infielders at 2B, 3B and SS who are prone to injury. Two coming off not very good seasons playing 3B and SS and a 2B who looked amazing in his first 182 AB's but has yet to reach 200 AB's and we have seen Lewis, Sano, Julien, Wallner and others look real good for 182 AB's before. 

Tristan Gray is going to be utilized heavily... count on it. He has to be decent. What will Kriedler do for us? 

The infield depth scares the pants on me... that's if I had pants. My pants are already scared off me by a potential Ryan injury that burns all of his current trade equity.  

[sweetmusicviola16]

Sounds like it could be season ending surgery.

[David Maro]

Don't want to throw cold water on the situation but need to sit Ryan down and ask him not to pitch in WBC. As of a short time ago Lopez will be getting a second opinion,but doesn't look good. Hopefully one of the many arms brought in will step up to fill his spot.

[darin617]

I'm pretty sure Pablo said he could throw left handed and hit low 80's i think. Let him do that until he blows out the left arm.

[KirbyDome89]

6 hours ago, Riverbrian said:

In this regard. 

The pitching doesn't worry me as much. I get it... Lopez and Ryan continuing to be Lopez and Ryan are vital because those are two very capable pitchers but at least we got a big group of replacements with potential that were going to be utilized at some point anyway during the 2026 season.   

The Infield on the other hand. Uff Da... we don't have near the talent level to absorb injuries or poor performance at every position. We are sitting with three infielders at 2B, 3B and SS who are prone to injury. Two coming off not very good seasons playing 3B and SS and a 2B who looked amazing in his first 182 AB's but has yet to reach 200 AB's and we have seen Lewis, Sano, Julien, Wallner and others look real good for 182 AB's before. 

Tristan Gray is going to be utilized heavily... count on it. He has to be decent. What will Kriedler do for us? 

The infield depth scares the pants on me... that's if I had pants. My pants are already scared off me by a potential Ryan injury that burns all of his current trade equity.  

Might be a case of the evil you know. Concur that to actually compete (which I don't think they had any real chance of doing) it was going to require a considerable jump in production from the supporting cast. For all the angst over the confusing construction and overall poor quality on the position player side (rightfully so) the pitching side, even prior to Pablo's injury was messy. The bullpen is just as bad as the infield situation IMO, and the quartet (Matthews, Festa, Abel, and Bradley) of SPs now filling in for Pablo + that last rotation spot are more wishcasting and hype than actual production.