MINNEAPOLIS -- Leave it to Pablo López, one of the most curious players you’ll ever come across, to find the fun and intrigue in the most grueling, draining thing a baseball player can do: rehab from Tommy John elbow surgery.
But that’s just what López has done, turning his lost season on the mound into a found year in every other way that he can. The veteran right-hander, who suffered a season-ending right elbow injury on the first day of full-squad workouts in Spring Training, has spent the year not only rehabbing but pursuing “side quests” to keep his mind sharp, stay engaged with his teammates, and make sure it’s not a lost year of his life.
This shouldn’t be shocking to anyone who knows López, a man of endless interests, from travel to food to philosophy to his dog. But it’s remarkable the lengths to which he’s gone.
He’s called games from the TV and radio booths, as well as hosting pre- and postgame shows on TV. He’s charted pitches from the dugout. He’s served as an interpreter for media interviews. He’s shadowed everyone from the Twins’ video analysts to bullpen catcher Anderson De La Rosa to pitching coach Pete Maki, with some more hopefully to come, all in the name of keeping sharp and engaged and making sure he makes the most of every single day. Even when he can’t pitch.
“The initial thought,” López said, “is that I want to make the next 12 months count. Twelve months are going to go by regardless if I beat myself down or I hype myself up. … Might as well make the most of it. I’m not going to be able to perform, which is heartbreaking. It’s devastating. But I don’t want to look back at 2026 and think of it as a year where I didn’t grow, I didn’t evolve, I didn’t do anything.”
And that has most definitely been the case. He’s joined the Twins on every road trip, a very unusual action for a player who’s out for the year, and a decision that inspired teammate Byron Buxton to travel with the team around the Trade Deadline when he was on the injured list. López has still looked to mentor young players, and be valuable to his teammates in every way he can, and it’s been noticed.
“The little things like that, people don't have to do,” said Buxton, “but to have him here and doing the things he's done, other than TV and translating -- he's awesome. You couldn't ask for much more. He's doing everything he possibly can, and that's something when you look around in here, it goes a long way for sure.”
But, again, this is not just about Pablo López the player. In fact, part of the key here is that it’s about Pablo López, more than a baseball player. He spoke frankly about the fact that losing baseball for a year led to some very heavy thoughts and decisions.
“I live, I sweat, I breathe baseball,” he said. “I live, sweat and breathe pitching. Well, guess what? That’s the one thing I don’t have this year. So obviously my identity felt shattered at the beginning. It’s like, 'Who am I? What am I going to do?' There’s so many identities, so many branches, even within that same identity. Even if that’s my main one, there’s so many branches that come from that. I’m a good uncle. I’m a good brother. I’m a good role model. I’m a veteran presence in this clubhouse.”
And beyond all that, well, again ... he’s a lot of other things, too. Like an interpreter, and a very good one. López has actually been the primary interpreter for interviews with Spanish-speaking players this year. He’s gotten rave reviews for his work on television. He hasn’t taken any of this lightly. It’s not a joke -- it’s driven by genuine curiosity, and he’s learned something from every side quest.
“[One day], I asked [Maki], ‘Where is he?’” said manager Derek Shelton. “He said, ‘He’s shadowing Anderson De La Rosa today.’ I was like, ‘He’s the bullpen catcher. Why is he shadowing? I think he makes enough money that he doesn’t need to do that.’ I think if you spend any time around Pablo, he has a curious mind. He just wants to learn.”
Oh, and of course he shadowed Maki one day as well.
“That one just put a little more perspective into what I already knew was a lot of work,” López said. “[The pitching coaches] really devote themselves to make sure that whatever questions we ask, they have the answer to. They have it readily available, because we might want to know something between innings to use the next inning. So seeing how much work the pitching coaches do, it was more eye-opening.”
Still, maybe it’s no surprise that López’s favorite side quest did come back to pitching. He said the best day was in the broadcast booth, talking about the subject he knows best.
“It sucks because we lost, but my last TV day, it gave me a lot of pitching to talk about,” he said. “I enjoyed and I hope people liked what we were discussing in the booth when it came to pitching and some specific plays. Again, it sucked that we lost, but I enjoyed all the baseball conversations that I had in the dugout that day.”
It all adds up to a year where, sure, López would rather have been pitching. But he’s making sure not to waste any days. And it won’t be shocking if it pays off on the pitching side at some point, too.
“Obviously being out for the whole season is a mental battle too,” he said. “You’re challenged on your resiliency. You’re challenged on, 'What are you doing?' So I’ve taken priority on the mental side of things to make sure that the growth and getting better is not only physical but mental.”