Pablo López’s return path gives the Twins something to look forward to after a season wrecked by injuries across the rotation.
López missed the entire 2026 campaign after having an internal brace procedure in February. He didn’t get back to full baseball activity until August, when he started throwing again, and he expects to be ready for spring training.
“In my case, chronologically speaking, I’m going to go straight into spring training, straight into the fire,” Lopez told Bobby Nightengale of The Minnesota Star Tribune.
The bad news for Minnesota didn’t stop with López. Mick Abel went on the injured list in April and never came back, David Festa sat out the whole season with a shoulder impingement and neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS) symptoms, and Joe Ryan also missed a month late in the year because of a glute injury.
That wave of absences left the Twins leaning on a starter group that had a rough time producing results. Minnesota’s rotation finished 22nd in ERA at 4.43 in 2026, though the numbers underneath were a little kinder. The staff’s 4.21 FIP pointed to better performance than the ERA showed, and the group also ranked 14th in walk rate at 8.0% and 12th in strikeout rate at 22.4%.
If López comes back healthy, that changes the picture fast.
With López, Ryan, Taj Bradley and Abel forming the top four - assuming Ryan or López isn’t traded - Minnesota could suddenly have one of the better rotations in the league. López, after all, has already shown exactly what he can be in a Twins uniform.
Minnesota got the right-hander from the Miami Marlins after the 2022 season in the Luis Arraez deal, then locked him up with a four-year, $73.5 million extension a few months later. He wasted little time becoming the staff ace and made the All-Star Game in his first season with the club.
In 2023, López put up a 3.66 ERA and a 3.33 FIP, struck out 234 hitters, and worked 194 innings. He was just as effective in the postseason, allowing one earned run over 12 2/3 innings in two starts.
His second season in Minnesota was still strong: a 4.08 ERA, a 3.65 FIP and 198 strikeouts across 185 2/3 innings.
Then came the injury-marred 2025 season, when he was limited to 14 starts but still posted a 2.74 ERA over 75 2/3 innings.
The Twins don’t need much imagination to see where this could go. A healthy López leading the way in 2027 would give Minnesota a much better shot in an American League Central that looked weak for most of the season.
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