Fort Myers – The Minnesota Twins are likely going to be without Pablo López for all of 2026. On Monday, an MRI revealed a significant tear in his right elbow following a live bullpen session.
“For it to come down in one pitch is a little disheartening,” López said, “but it’s a reality of being a baseball player, an athlete in general.”
López, 29, still expects to get a second opinion with Dr. Keith Meister in Texas soon. However, López will likely opt to undergo another Tommy John surgery and miss the entire 2026 season.
“As we work through that, regardless of exactly which procedure it is, if Pablo goes down a surgical route, he would miss the entire 2026 season,” said Twins GM Jeremy Zoll. “Obviously, it’s really disappointing news. You really feel for Pablo. As everyone knows, his work ethic, how much he cares about his body, his preparation is second to none.”
López knows it will be a long rehab process.
“I consider myself being very in tune with my body, also with my mind, and I know it’s a hard place to be rehabbing something that you know it’s not going to regenerate itself,” he said. “Foreign tissues, such as a graft that came from my hamstring to my elbow 12 years ago, it’s not going to regenerate itself.”
The potential of losing López for the entire 2026 season is a blow to Minnesota’s starting rotation and clubhouse. He will still be present if he is recovering from surgery. Still, there’s the lingering absence of what López can do on the mound for a Twins team trying to bounce back from a down 2025 season.
López told fellow starting pitcher Joe Ryan about the tear in his elbow on Tuesday morning, and it left Ryan at a bit of a loss for words.
“Everything’s getting rolling and the expectation and stuff, and then just having him go down like that,” said Ryan. “Yeah, it’s tough. I hope there’s some hope with the second opinion, but at the same time, yeah. It’s just not a good sign, regardless.”
Meanwhile, new manager Derek Shelton has lost one of his best pitchers early in camp.
“I’m still getting to know him and developing a relationship with him,” said Shelton. “The most important thing that he can get from any of us, myself included, is just support.
“And we just need to find out more information, find out more clarity in this case,” he added. “But obviously you feel for the person, because I don’t know if we have anybody in our clubhouse that takes care of himself the way he does, and it’s unfortunate something like this happens.”
López missed significant time in 2025 due to a right teres major muscle strain, which forced him to exit his start early in Sacramento on June 3. He missed half the season but was able to make three starts in September, only to land on the IL with a mild forearm strain.
The MRI at the time showed no significant tear in his elbow. Still, given that pitchers typically have six years before the new ligament in their elbow from their first Tommy John surgery begins to wear down, López doubled the expected timeline. He made it 12 years before a ‘significant tear’ showed up in his right elbow, which made him seem like the exception ot the rule.
“I remember when I first got my first surgery, people would tell me these things come with an expiration date,” López said. “Some guys have it, and sometimes they may have to have it four or five or six years. Once I cleared the six-year mark in 2019, I was like, ‘Maybe I’m the exception.’ I mean, I was to some to some extent.”
If López opts to undergo a second Tommy John surgery in the coming weeks, then it can at least set him up for a return by May 2027. As much as he and the Twins would love a silver lining that reveals options to avoid a second surgery, they also want to consider the longevity of his career beyond 2026. It’s that sliver of hope that helps López look on the bright side of a bad situation.
“So, trying to navigate a lot of emotions, there’s the side of me, the teammate wants to be there, wants to be a part of it, and say other options, like what does this mean timeline-wise,” he said. “Or what it’s going to mean for the future, the rest of the career, so just trying to navigate that stuff right now, all the different aspects. So that will be a little easier to navigate all the scenarios once we know the second opinion, and then we come up with a plan.”
