Pablo Lopez Injury Update: When Will SP Return to Twins?

The Minnesota Twins will have to hang tough in the American League playoff hunt for much of early portion of the summer without their ace Pablo Lopez.

Lopez suffered a strain of the teres major muscle in his right shoulder on June 3. Twins fans and fantasy baseball owners are now asking when will Lopez return and be back on the mound? Below, we will project a timeline of Lopez’s recovery and offer an injury update. We will also look at Twins odds as we enter the heart of the baseball season. 

🚑 When will Pablo Lopez return and be back with Twins?

The good news is that we will see Lopez on the mound for the Twins again this year, barring any setbacks. It is just going to be a while. 

Lopez will miss two or three months with this shoulder injury, which is a grade 2 strain of the teres major muscle. Most people can recover from this injury in 4-to-8 weeks, but MLB teams treat pitchers’ arms delicately so this will be more like 8-to-12 weeks.

Then-Rangers pitcher Max Scherzer and Lopez’s Twins teammate Joe Ryan both suffered grade 2 strains of the teres major muscle in recent years. The injury ended the season for both pitchers, but those came much later in the year (September and August, respectively).

A better comp as far as when it occurred during the season is former Blue Jays pitcher Clay Buchholz suffering this injury a few years back. Buchholz was put on the IL on May 10 of that year and did not return until Aug. 25 - a timeline that lasted three months and 15 days.

Buchholz was 34 at the time, so that may have contributed to the Blue Jays using extra caution. Lopez is 29 years old and most signs point to him being closer to the 10-week mark than the 12-week mark.

Exactly 10 weeks (70 days) from when Lopez suffered the strain would be Aug. 11. Here is a look at the Twins’ schedule around that time.

• Monday, Aug. 11: Minnesota Twins at New York Yankees
• Tuesday, Aug. 12: Minnesota Twins at New York Yankees
• Wednesday, Aug. 13: Minnesota Twins at New York Yankees
• Thursday, Aug. 14: Detroit Tigers at Minnesota Twins
• Friday, Aug. 15: Detroit Tigers at Minnesota Twins

⏳ How long will Lopez be out for?

As mentioned above, expect Lopez to be out for around 70 days. The Twins are in the thick of the American League Wild Card hunt and still have a shot at the AL Central crown given how we’re still relatively early in the MLB season. Minnesota will surely want Lopez back as quick as possible, but it will also play that fine line of making sure he’s 110 percent.

Lopez is rostered in 92 percent of Yahoo fantasy baseball leagues. The Venezuelan star hurler is 5-3 on the season with a 2.82 ERA. He has 61 K’s in 2025.

💰 Twins betting odds

You can bet on every Twins game, including player props, at our best MLB betting sites. Minnesota currently has +3000 World Series odds. Lopez was among the Cy Young odds favorites at the start of the season, owning a +1700 price. He is no longer available to bet on most sportsbooks due to the injury.