Mick Abel will undergo surgery on his right elbow after a second opinion from Dr. Keith Meister, and the Twins now face an indefinite absence for their starting pitcher. The recommendation landed Wednesday, after an MRI had shown no ligament damage on Monday.
Abel is expected to miss at least a few months and may be lost for the remainder of the 2026 season. The medical turn came after he had looked sharp in two rehab outings for Triple-A St. Paul.
Keith Meister’s review
Derek Shelton said the MRI found no ligament damage, but the follow-up exam changed the path. That is the part that matters for Abel: the elbow did not present as a Tommy John case, yet the final recommendation still pushed him toward the operating table.
Arthroscopic surgery is a minimally invasive procedure on a joint, which is why the recovery window is shorter than Tommy John surgery. The article says the difference can be meaningful when a pitcher is trying to get back before the season runs out, and there are only three months left in baseball's regular season.
Abel had been tentatively set to make his MLB return last Sunday in Arizona before discomfort surfaced after a Friday bullpen session. That sequence left the Twins with a pitcher who had nearly rejoined the staff, then quickly moved from a return date to surgery.
Abel and the Twins
There is a recent comparison inside the same injury lane. Dr. Neal ElAttrache performed a NanoScope procedure on Tarik Skubal's pitching elbow in early May, and Skubal was back on an MLB mound around five weeks later. That timeline sits at the short end of the range, but Abel's recovery will not be measured until after the surgery is finished.
For the Twins, the immediate task is simple: move forward without a timetable for Abel and wait for the post-operation plan. For Abel, the next step is the procedure itself, with the recovery clock starting only after that work is done.
