Pablo López, both a brilliant pitcher and brilliant thinker, perhaps understands his body as well as any ballplayer. After being diagnosed with a shoulder strain in early June, López immediately attacked his rehabilitation.
Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that López recently gave the most accurate account I have seen of what has ailed the Twins for the last year.
The Twins led 4-0, held a 70-53 record and were on the verge of sweeping the Texas Rangers after six scoreless innings from Lopez on Aug. 18, 2024. Jorge Alcala had a blow-up seventh, and the Twins lost that game and somehow never recovered in the calendar year that followed.
Phil Miller wrote about Monday’s painful anniversary, and I talked about the factors that went into it on Tuesday’s Daily Delivery podcast.
Here in today’s 10 things to know, I’d like to focus in on López to both appreciate what his pitching has meant to the Twins, how his absence has been felt and what his truth-telling quote means about the last year.
- First, the quote. This was López in Miller’s story trying to sum up what went wrong for the Twins, who won the AL Central in 2023, were cruising toward the playoffs in 2024 but have gone 70-93 since: “We didn’t have a common mentality of like, when you lose, there are still positives, there are still ways to pick your teammates up so the energy level doesn’t crash all the way down. When we were good on the field, we felt so great. But when things didn’t work, the feeling went from such a high to such a low, and we weren’t able to kind of keep it medium. We couldn’t keep our continuum more level, and it made it so much harder to get out of it.” That’s exactly what it has looked like from a reasonable distance. Remember: This year’s Twins are eight games under .500 but had a 13-game winning streak in May. They have lacked either the leadership or fortitude to get out of ruts.
- Remember that in the 2023 postseason, López started Game 1 against Toronto in the AL wild-card round. He allowed just one run in 5⅔ innings as the Twins ended an 18-game playoff losing streak with a 3-1 victory. In his only start of the ALDS, López tossed seven scoreless innings in a win at Houston.
- Lopez actually struggled somewhat in 2024; his ERA sat at 5.63 in the middle of June. But he was much better in the second half of the season. Even in the midst of their 12-27 collapse to end 2024, the Twins won López’s next four starts after the infamous Aug. 18 game, and he owned a 2.84 ERA in seven starts in that span.
- The Twins were 33-27 after López won a start in early June, but he was diagnosed shortly thereafter with the shoulder strain that has kept him out for the last two-plus months. The Twins have gone 25-39 since then, including a major trade deadline sell-off. Who knows how differently the season might have played out if López were still anchoring the rotation.
- The direction of the franchise plus López’s contract (he has two years at $21.5 million per season left on his deal) lead to this question: Will we ever see him pitch a meaningful game for the Twins again? Yes, he is slated to perhaps return in a couple of weeks, when the Twins will be spiritually but not mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. Will they seek to shed more payroll and get back more prospects in a López trade this offseason now that the Pohlads are keeping the team? The answer to that question will tell us the depth of the Twins’ rebuild. With a healthy López, you could imagine the Twins being competitive with some breaks next year. Without him? Forget it.
- Also on Tuesday’s podcast, Star Tribune Vikings writer Ben Goessling joined me for a breakdown of the depth chart at quarterback and wide receiver. It could be an interesting few weeks leading up to the Monday night opener.
- One thing I keep having to remember, of course: Whatever we think we’ve seen from the Vikings on offense out at camp or during preseason games, it will look a lot different when Justin Jefferson is playing. He was back at practice Monday for the first time in more than three weeks.
- It’s not shocking but still worth pointing out that the Vikings made Bill Barnwell’s piece on the five teams most likely to have a worse record this year than last year. If somehow they are better than 14-3, a sculptor can start work on a Kevin O’Connell statue.
- I imagine the New York Liberty wouldn’t mind if the game was canceled given how the Lynx have dominated them recently, but the teams are set to play again Tuesday in New York.
- Star Tribune columnist Chip Scoggins is expected to be my guest on Wednesday’s podcast.
