The third week of January was shaping up to be a special one at the Twins’ academy in the Dominican Republic.
It was the beginning of the international signing period, and a handful of teenagers were realizing a big part of their dreams, putting ink to paper and marking the official start to their journeys in professional baseball. At the same time, a group of young ballplayers was graduating from high school. Celebrations were scheduled.
And then, Pablo López showed up.
In the coastal town of Boca Chica, about 25 miles east of Santo Domingo, López served as a beacon for the teenagers gathered. If he could do it, if he could make it to the majors and be a star, maybe someday they could, too.
“(It’s) just a really cool opportunity for them to get to spend that time (together), and hopefully they can fully appreciate that,” said Twins general manager Jeremy Zoll, who also was in the Dominican Republic that week. “It’s not common to have someone of Pablo’s caliber and character just be willing to dedicate time in the offseason for that.”
The Twins’ ace had thought about visiting the team’s academy over the past couple of years, but he was hesitant to travel in January, so close to the start of spring training, for fear it negatively affect impact his preparation.
But this wasn’t a trip just anywhere. This was a baseball complex that would have everything he’d need to continue training for the upcoming season. After finding out that it was the international signing period and graduation day, López had a little bit extra motivation to hop on a plane and make it work.
“When you are that early in your career, or about to start, you’re not really exposed to who you want to be,” López said. “It’s also one of those things, if you see it, you can become it. The more you see it, the more real it could be.”
López stayed at the academy for five days. When the staff invited him out to dinner, he declined, saying he’d rather spend the time playing cards with the young ballplayers.
One Twins minor leaguer, Victor Leal, who signed with the organization in 2024, thanked López for coming to visit on the major leaguer’s Instagram post about the trip — and then reminded López to practice his card playing so he could beat him the next time around.
López shot some pool, too, and played video games with the prospects. He observed their bullpens, and them his — all eyes locked on López when he threw, Zoll, said. He participated in a Q&A where players asked him questions about his journey and offered words of advice and motivation.
“You could tell everyone was really dialed in on every word that he had to offer all their players and their families,” Zoll said. “It was really special.”
López himself was once much like these teenagers, though he signed at 16 with the Seattle Mariners out of Venezuela, not the Dominican Republic. He didn’t have an experience when he was younger like the one he provided last month, but he did recall an “Erasmo Ramírez Award,” when he played in the Venezuelan Summer League named after the veteran reliever with whom he now shares a clubhouse.
“It was kind of like a fantasy thing, someone that’s so good, someone that’s about to make it to the majors actually did go through here,” López said.
Getting to this point, López wanted the next generation to know, was not easy. The journey they are about to embark on requires time away from family, missing birthdays, weddings and other celebrations. But the end result has been gratifying.
“You want to do right for the people that did it before you, and you want to do right by those that are about to go into their journey or those going to come after you,” López said. “After the graduation, they asked me to say a couple things. And I’m like, ‘Well, hopefully all of you, but if not, the few that in 12 years from now are hopefully able and blessed to be where I am today, you can look back into this and think that it helped you in any shape or form.’”
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