00:00Pablo Lopez out for the year and likely cutting into the first half of the 2027 season with a torn
00:07UCL Pablo going to undergo Tommy John surgery. It's incredibly unfortunate that this is happening to Pablo Lopez mentioned the
00:14twin situation if they were going to be frisky and a team that could finish third and compete for a
00:20wildcard spot in the American League.
00:22It was probably going to be because of Pablo Lopez and Joe Ryan. Joe Ryan is headed to the shelf
00:28during spring training with a lower back issue right now, but nowhere near as severe as Pablo Lopez. I know
00:34you got to know the guy a little bit in Pablo Lopez. Yeah, this is a huge loss on the
00:39field and off the field.
00:41You know, Pablo had a lot of little flare ups, even with like how many innings he's sneakily thrown, you
00:47know, over the last several years. There were there were points where you wondered if this was going to pop
00:52back up eating a TJ early in his professional career.
00:55But, you know, I think through spurts with the Marlins, there would be some recurrent things and then it seemed
01:00like after the trade and honestly in his final year with Miami 180 innings and after the trade, he really
01:06seemed to work his way back up from an innings workload after never throwing more than 111 innings going into
01:122022.
01:13We threw 180 in 2022 194 in 2023 and 185 in 2024. But then last year, some a little bit
01:19banged up with only half almost a third of the output and then, you know, leads into what happened this
01:24year here.
01:25It's a second TJ, but at the same time, pretty well spaced out from the last one. And at 30
01:30years old, I think this can set him up will be 31 when he returns, obviously, but we can set
01:34him up for a really strong second half of his career here.
01:38The interesting part is just going to be with who and that's the part that really stinks timing wise is
01:45and probably part of the reason why I could understand holding on to Joe Ryan.
01:49The Pablo side doesn't make as much sense to hold on to him for me, especially when, you know, this
01:55is a team that has at points cried poor.
01:58I know ownership differences, things like that, but he's going to be a free agent after 2027.
02:04And I know you can't foresee injury like that, but he was banged up last year and now you're, you're
02:10in a spot where you probably can never move him.
02:13And I don't really know what that's going to look like. So from a human standpoint, Pablo is one of
02:18the nicest guys.
02:19I know that has been a Marlin in the last handful of years, just being around, that was around the
02:23time I first got my footing and, you know, just being in a big league clubhouse and everybody loves Pablo.
02:28So from the human side, obviously just rooting for him, want to see him back soon from the team side
02:32of sex.
02:32Cause this was a team that could be pesky. Still think they can, they have a lot of other young
02:35pitchers that can plug in, but they ain't going to be Pablo.
02:38And then on the third side for the twins long-term, this is kind of the worst case scenario, given
02:43the timing and where he's at with his contract.
02:45Right. Because you run into the inability to flip him for additional assets where you feel like you may be
02:50falling a little bit short, but it's always going to break my brain.
02:55Why they sold off so many valuable pieces with control in that bullpen.
02:58And I guess maybe they felt like they could flip bullpen pieces. They did like this soft teardown last year.
03:04And I understand that some of them were rentals like bat wise. Bader was a rental.
03:08He hit the open market, but like Jax is back in Tampa.
03:12Varland is back in Toronto with a couple of years to go.
03:14Duran is back in Philly with a couple of years to go.
03:17It was just a fascinating teardown to me, but to your point, they've got irons in the fires.
03:22Like Zebby Matthews is a common breakout pick for Minnesota.
03:25Joe Ryan's still fronting that rotation.
03:27And I'm not ready to give up on Taj Bradley just yet.
03:30He's still so young.
03:31And I know that Acuna hit a ball 300 miles an hour against him over the weekend in Port Charlotte.
03:37But he also punched out five over three innings.
03:39Taj did. Yeah.
03:40I mean, listen, man, I, I'm in on a lot of the things that Minnesota has right now.
03:46And Mick Abel is a fascinating piece to me.
03:48Both guys, they got in the Duran deal.
03:50Like it's going to take a couple of years, but Eduardo Taillet is probably their catcher of the future.
03:55How OK do you think Twins fans should be feeling right now?
03:58Because it's been a really hard 365 days for them.
04:01Yeah.
04:02You know, I think they should be frustrated at this specific issue because of what they could have potentially got
04:10for Pablo.
04:11But, you know, if this was something that was heading towards happening, maybe he would have been difficult, you know,
04:17to pull off the trade anyways with, with maybe how some of the medicals would have looked.
04:19But I think they should still feel pretty frustrated with that.
04:22That said, there's a lot to be excited about.
04:24And I'm looking at like seven names on the 40 man roster already pitching wise that I think should get
04:30innings this year, whether it's out of the bullpen or as a starter that are pretty exciting.
04:33By the way, Kendry Rojas, who they got in the trade, there still was a little bit of head scratcher
04:36with the Blue Jays for Varlin.
04:38Rojas looks really good, man.
04:40And I think he could get up there and give them an, you know, give them some, some intriguing starts
04:43by the second half of the season.
04:44He was getting like seven and a half feet of extension in his first spring training start this past year
04:49or last week as a left-hander there.
04:51So with Abel, Rojas, Prelit, Morris, Festa, Marco Raya, even I still think has some intrigue.
04:58There's a lot of arms there that you were going to need to audition anyways.
05:02This is not the way you want to open the runway for it, but I mean, there's going to be
05:05a lot of guys that will have the opportunity to fill in.
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