Souhan: Pablo López knows his legs are his strength, and now he’s ready to prove it

Thursday in St. Louis, the Twins’ Pablo López will start on Opening Day, hoping that exceptional work on his body will produce an exceptional body of work.

He has legs, and he knows how to use them.

Kirby Puckett used to joke about the rounded edges of his improbably squat body.

Kent Hrbek celebrated his dad-bod by mimicking drinking a beer during Bob Casey’s pregame introductions.

Paul Molitor apparently stole his massive forearms from an unsuspecting defensive end.

Because baseball remains a game of skill and technique, players with varying physiques can thrive. Strength and explosiveness matter, but they can be concealed within an oddly-shaped uniform.

Some Twins — such as center fielder Byron Buxton and shortstop Carlos Correa — look like Greek statues.

Others look more like Greek yogurt — soft and amorphous, as if filled with protein.

López is the latest Twin with a unique body to vie for stardom.

He’s the team’s ace. Now he needs to pitch like one.

In the shortened 2021 season while pitching for the Marlins, López posted an ERA of 3.07. His second-best ERA in his seven-year career is 3.61. His best ERA with the Twins: 3.66, in 2023. Last year, López’s ERA was 4.08.

He’s a durable pitcher with an impressive variety of pitches. Teammates and members of the organization rave about his attitude, coachability, adaptability and work ethic, as well as his charitable personality.

Last year, as a pitcher, he looked too easily solved.

The 2025 Twins enter the season with perhaps the deepest pitching staff in franchise history. It would be convenient for the team if López’s massive legs lead the way.

“The legs are the foundation of what we do as pitchers,” López said. “You need your legs to be under you.”

It would seem there are no alternatives, but that phrase holds meaning for pitchers.

“You never want to get to the seventh inning and feel that your legs are weak or tired,” he said. “You want to feel solid.”

For López, “solid” is an understatement. In a clubhouse filled with professional athletes, his legs stand when he stands up. He’s the Twins pitcher who looks like he was created by AI, or a superhero movie director.

From the waist up, he looks like a well-conditioned athlete. From the waist down, he’s the incredible bulk.

“I do a lot of running,” he said. “Even when I signed with the Mariners in 2012, running was still the big thing. There’s been more research as the years have gone by, and now you see a lot of teams have developed weightlifting programs or conditioning programs, and they are not doing a lot of running.

“I still like running. I like the mindset of it, being out in clear spaces. You go for a 45-minute run and it’s mentally challenging. You want to stop every five minutes, and you have to talk yourself into running five more minutes.”

He runs long distances. He runs sprints and executes box jumps, hurdle jumps, triple jumps and box hopping.

“A lot of guys like total body workouts,” he said. “I do splits. I take one day just for legs, one day just for my upper body. I really get after my legs.

“I do single-leg explosiveness, then both legs. I take slow, controlled reps with high volume, and explosive movements.”

When he had Tommy John surgery on his right elbow at age 17, the doctors used a graft from his left hamstring. That led to his right leg being stronger than his left. He uses his workouts to restore balance.

“If I do regular squats, I tend to compensate, and my weight shifts more to my right,” he said. “So the last few years I’ve identified that and isolated my legs by doing single-leg squats, Bulgarian squats, lateral launches.”

During the season, he runs the day after he pitches. “Could be outside, could be on the treadmill, could be on the concourses of the stadium,” he said. “I like finding ramps to run, and to run up and down the stands.

“The day after we pitch, we jump on force plates. They check our reaction times, our strength numbers, our jump momentum. We have a really good, thorough, strength and conditioning program.”

When the seventh inning arrives on Thursday, López hopes he still has two good legs to stand on.