The Minnesota Twins finally did it. They’ve ended their 18-game playoff losing streak! Twins fans young and old have had plenty of time to envision what it would take for Minnesota to get back into the postseason win column for the first time since 2004. To win in the playoffs, the Twins were always going to need great starting pitching. Pablo López did that.
López allowed only one run over 5.2 innings on five hits and two walks while striking out three in the most important start of his career. He worked through baserunners, errors, and a talented Toronto Blue Jays lineup to put Minnesota in a good position to earn that first postseason win in nearly two decades. It’s a start that will memorialize him in Twins lore. It is also a performance that can end any skepticism of what Minnesota had to give up to get López.
The Twins made a bold trade with the Miami Marlins on Jan. 20. They sent Luis Arraez, the 2022 American League batting champion, to Miami for a starter many fans may not have been familiar with. Many fans were upset with the trade. How could a team trade a batting champion? Especially for López, who wasn’t an ace in Miami.
Arraez continued to be the hitter we all knew he was. By June 10, his .402 batting average thrust him into the national spotlight. Many Twins fans thought that they “lost” the trade. Arraez finished the regular season with only a .354 batting average and became the first player ever to win the batting title in each league in consecutive seasons. Arraez was a good player the Twins had to give up to try and get someone who they thought could be their ace.
At first glance, López was having a good but not great first season in Minnesota. Through June 30, he had a 4-5 record and a 4.24 ERA. Fans missed Arraez. However, López was pitching much better than those numbers would indicate. He had a 3.37 FIP, an 87.2 MPH average exit velocity, and 126 strikeouts to that point in the season.
Eventually, López won Twins fans over. He finished the season with 4.5 fWAR, a 3.66 ERA, and a 3.33 FIP. López also finished second in the junior circuit with 234 strikeouts and his first career All-Star selection. Minnesota’s efforts to develop López through the winter and regular season paid dividends. He re-tooled his pitch repertoire, adding a sweeper and switching up his pitch mix. López’s fastball became better than ever. He had a career-high 94.9 MPH average fastball, and he threw it 1,043 times this regular season.
Even with all of the strides López made, he wasn’t Minnesota’s clear-cut ace. Sonny Gray finished second in the AL with a 2.79 ERA in a renaissance season for the 11-year veteran. Gray had a great season, and that prevented some fans from getting on board with the idea that López should have been the Game 1 starter. Ultimately, the No. 1 thing on the mind of Twins fans was ending the playoff losing streak that hung over Target Field for nearly 20 years. López needed to be a guy who could help the Twins not just win in the regular season but also win in October to prove himself to that area of the fanbase.
López proved the doubters wrong against the Blue Jays. He came out firing, outdoing his already impressive regular-season numbers. He threw fastballs at 95.7 MPH on average, topping out at 97 MPH. López threw 93 pitches, and 30 of them were his sweeper, which generated 3 whiffs off of 16 swings.
The big inning has been López’s weakness this season. He had a .837 OPS allowed in first innings this season is his highest, and a .776 OPS in the sixth, his second-highest. López could have made fans miss Arraez less if he could have avoided so many blow-up innings in the regular season.
In the first, López stranded a lead-off base runner after a Jorge Polanco error at third to begin the game. López generated a ground ball to get out of a two-on, two-out jam in the fourth inning thanks to a great play by Carlos Correa that bailed out Polanco when he failed to make a play on a ground ball. There were baserunners, and there were jams, but López was able to overcome them and avoid the big inning in the most important start of the season. He stranded five Blue Jay runners over his 5.2 innings on Tuesday.
The Twins signed López to a four-year, $73.5 million extension in April, putting him under team control for the next five seasons. López showed up for the Twins in big moments, and he has a chance to do it for the foreseeable future. It’s worth trading a great hitter like Arraez for a starter like López.
López didn’t need to prove anything after a career year and an All-Star appearance. Twins fans will remember what he did in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series for years to come. Minnesota had to give up a lot to get him, but after the start Lopez had today, it is time to stop worrying about trading away Arraez. The Twins got the ace they’ve been looking for, making it all worth it.
