How Twins ace finds peace through meditation

This story was excerpted from Matthew Leach's Twins Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

MINNEAPOLIS -- By his own admission, Pablo López overthinks. He overanalyzes. There are worse ways to be, for sure; López is rarely unprepared. But in baseball, there’s no mental skill more valuable than forgetting what just happened and moving on to the next pitch or at-bat, and López hasn’t always been great at that.

One other thing about the Twins’ right-hander, though: He’s always working to improve, and that doesn’t just mean his pitch arsenal or selection. It means the mental side. As a result, López has turned to meditation. It helps him accept what just happened and move on to the next pitch.

Sometimes it’s on the bus. Sometimes in the dugout. Sometimes even in the clubhouse, López can be seen taking a few minutes to himself, his hoodie over his head, with a guided meditation on his headphones.

“Meditation for me has been like a way, a method for me to stay present, stay locked in,” he said. “I listen to the directions of the meditation I'm following, and it's like, ‘OK, how can I visualize outcomes? How can I visualize what I want to achieve?’ Just taking the 5- to 10-minute meditation, and [I can get] really locked in what it feels like to be present, to be centered.”

Fundamentally, meditation is as simple a thing as a person can do -- you find a comfortable, alert position and just … breathe. It is a mindfulness technique that uses the breath as an anchor for awareness and helps a person let thoughts go in order to focus on the breath. Some guided meditations include lessons on dealing with challenges or other words of wisdom, but at its heart, the practice is ultimately as simple as being present and breathing.

López estimates that he practices about four times a week during the season. The lessons of the guided meditations help him with things like accepting events and continuing positive momentum. But also, the practice itself helps him stay focused, rather than letting his thoughts run wild.

“It gives my breath purpose, meaning and intention,” he said. “It's like, if I know I'm breathing, if I'm conscious about the breath, it's like, ‘OK, I know where I am. I am where my feet are.’ So I give a lot of meaning and intent to my breathing.

“So when I'm on the mound, and if I catch myself, thinking, ‘OK, this is how I'm going to get out of this inning,’ it’s just like, ‘No. I'm breathing because it's an 0-1 count with a runner on first, two outs. I'm right here in this moment.' … [I can] just block that noise, or block those scenarios that haven't happened, and just focus on what I have in front of me.”

López began exploring meditation in 2023 on the advice of Premier Sport Psychology, a company that works with the Twins. They helped him understand that his tendency to prepare and ponder was a two-edged sword.

“A lot of times,” López said, “strengths can be flaws. It's OK to think that you're preparing, but then you have a lot of these scenarios in your head, and you're always thinking that they're going to happen. Do you want to be so overprepared that you're exhausting yourself when things haven't happened yet? It's like paying a debt that I don't owe yet. ... So I did a lot of work on, like, how can I just simplify things?”

López said that he has noticed a difference in his ability to prevent problems on the mound from spiraling. He’s not the only one who’s seen that, either.

“I think he's made not just an effort, but an actual change in demeanor,” said manager Rocco Baldelli, “and I think he now has more of a straightforward approach, like a bulldog, go right at them, straightforward approach. As opposed to the overly contemplative approach. So yes, I think that that is a noticeable thing for him and a good thing for him too, overall.”