{"id":493311,"date":"2026-02-20T22:17:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T22:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/493311\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T22:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T22:17:08","slug":"twins-ace-pablo-lopez-set-for-season-ending-tommy-john-surgery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/493311\/","title":{"rendered":"Twins ace Pablo L\u00f3pez set for season-ending Tommy John surgery"},"content":{"rendered":"

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Minnesota right-hander Pablo Lopez<\/a> will have season-ending Tommy John elbow surgery, expected once the Twins discovered their ace’s torn ulnar collateral ligament.<\/p>\n

The team said Friday that L\u00f3pez’s surgery will be performed next week in Texas by Rangers team physician Dr. Keith Meister. L\u00f3pez turns 30 early next month.<\/p>\n

It will be the second Tommy John surgery for L\u00f3pez. He had the procedure as a minor leaguer with the Seattle organization and missed the 2014 season.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/p>\n

2 Related<\/p>\n

L\u00f3pez ended a bullpen session early during the Twins’ first full-squad workout Monday. First-year manager Derek Shelton said he was hopeful the move was precautionary, but a day later general manager Jeremy Zoll told reporters of the UCL tear.<\/p>\n

L\u00f3pez was the Twins’ opening-day starter for the past three years and was planning to pitch for Venezuela in next month’s World Baseball Classic.<\/p>\n

L\u00f3pez made his major league debut with the Miami Marlins<\/a> in 2018 and spent five seasons with them, then was traded to the Twins.<\/p>\n

He made the All-Star team in his first year with Minnesota and helped the franchise end a record 18-game postseason losing streak for North American professional sports, going 2-0 with an 0.71 ERA in two starts in the 2023 playoffs.<\/p>\n

L\u00f3pez is making $21.75 million this season and is signed through next year.<\/p>\n

A shoulder injury limited him to 14 starts last season after he made 32 in each of three consecutive 10-win seasons, the first in his final season with the Marlins. L\u00f3pez was 5-4 with a 2.74 ERA in 2025 and is 59-53 with a 3.81 ERA for his career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT MYERS, Fla. — Minnesota right-hander Pablo Lopez will have season-ending Tommy John elbow surgery, expected once the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":493312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-493311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}