One final start brings Lopez ‘peace of mind’
There was a point when Pablo Lopez wasn’t sure if it would be possible. Time was working against him.
But the goal never left his mind. Someway, somehow, if he could do it, Pablo Lopez was going to find his way back to the pitcher’s mound before the Marlins’ season came to an end.
“Peace of mind,” Lopez explained.
Lopez feels healthy, his right rotator cuff strain mostly healed after twoplus months of rehab that included a setback and slowdown of his progression midway through. His offseason regimen wouldn’t change.
It would, however, have an impact on him mentally.
“That would help me go into the offseason not thinking that spring training next year is going to feel like a question mark,” Lopez said. “It’ll make me feel like I can go through a regular normal offseason and when spring training
2022 comes and they want me to throw a bullpen on day one, I know I’ll be able to. That’s the main thing.”
Lopez is getting that chance. The 25-year-old right-hander is set to start the Marlins’ season finale against the Philadelphia Phillies on Sunday.
The plan is for Lopez to throw about 45 pitches — “Three good innings,” as the pitcher put it — to wrap up his season on a high note.
“We’re really happy and excited about that,” manager Don Mattingly said. “I know he’s excited about that. The feeling is that’s good that we’re ready for that. Obviously, it’s something that I think we all wanted to accomplish. We didn’t want to force, but we’re happy that it’s going to happen.”
Prior to the injury, Lopez was tracking toward his best season as a big-leaguer. He made each of his first 19 scheduled starts before the All-Star Break, pitching to a 3.03 ERA with a career-high 111 strikeouts against 25 walks over 101 innings. His 1.09 WHIP, .227 batting average against, 9.89 strikeouts per nine inning, 4.44 strikeouts per walk and 7.57 hits per nine inning are on pace to be career bests.
Lopez gave up more than three runs in just three of those 19 starts.
He set an MLB record in his final outing, a 7-4 win over the Atlanta Braves on July 11, by striking out nine consecutive batters to begin a game.
“This guy was steady every fifth day or sixth day that he took the ball,” pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr. said. “We were at a point that we knew we were going to get that from him. The industry started to take notice of how consistently he was getting soft contact, his ability to throw strikes and find the zone.
“Man, a guy that we could truly count on.”
And then, as has been the case in seasons before, a shoulder injury sidelined him in the second half of the season.
He missed the final month of the 2018 season and two months late in the 2019 season with right shoulder strains.
After making it through the shortened 2020 season — a season in which he had to make only 12 starts (one in the playoffs) — he faced another setback in 2021 with the rotator cuff.
“It’s a little different,” Lopez said of the current injury compared to the past two shoulder ailments, “but the main discomfort came from the same injury that I had two years ago.”
By mid-August, Lopez had progressed enough with his rehab to advance to minor-league rehab assignments. He made one, throwing three shutout innings with three strikeouts for Triple A Jacksonville on Aug. 21.
But Lopez said he felt minor discomfort the day after the start — not bad enough that it would make him shut down his season, but enough to know he wouldn’t make his next rehab start.
“I was listening very carefully to my body,” Lopez said, “and then I sat down with the coaches and we took a step back.”
A week after that first rehab start, Aug. 28, Lopez was returning to Miami.
With barely a month left in the season at that point, there were questions as to whether Lopez would have the opportunity to go through a second full proper rehab in time to get on the mound. Even for just a three-inning appearance, he would need at least two to three live hitter appearances, with one or two of those preferably in a rehab start setting, not to mention the routine bullpen sessions. Plus, Lopez would need to feel completely healthy after each advancement for the Marlins to feel confident using him in a game.
“I think the biggest thing with Pablo and with the organization is to be able to go through this build-up,” Mattingly said. “To get him back to the mound would be the top priority for everyone.”
And they found a plan that worked.
Lopez faced hitters pregame at loanDepot park on Sept. 18, made a two-inning rehab start with Triple A Jacksonville on Sept. 23 and threw a three-inning bullpen session in New York on Sept. 28.
“I will feel a lot better once I see him out on that mound, but it’s great, him feeling better than he did the previous time,” Marlins general manager Kim Ng said. “Knowing that that guy [is back] and I think just in terms of his frame of mind and his mindset, I think that’s probably the best thing that he feels that and is expressing it at this point.”
The final step comes Sunday when he makes it back to the mound in an MLB game one last time this season.
“Just really happy to get one more chance to get on the mound before the season ends,” Lopez said. “We’ve talked about ending the season on a happy, healthy note, so I think Sunday will give me that and will make me very happy. Just so excited to pitch again.”