Minnesota Twins right-hander Pablo Lopez is expected to miss 8-12 weeks with a Grade 2 strain in his right shoulder.

The Twins said Wednesday night that Lopez strained the teres major muscle in his pitching shoulder, which forced him to exit his start Tuesday against the Athletics. The earliest he will be able to resume throwing is in four weeks.

López pitched five innings and gave up two runs on four hits, three walks while striking out four before leaving the start against the Athletics with what the team called right shoulder tightness.

Lopez later said he first felt soreness in the bottom of the fifth inning.

“I tried to stay loose — we had a long inning,” he said after Tuesday’s game. “Then I went out there and made my three warmup pitches (before the sixth) low-to-mid intensity, and I felt the same thing. If it felt that way, then if I try to make a max-effort throw to get the inning started, you wonder what could happen.”

Lopez is 5-3 with a 2.82 ERA this season.

He is in his eighth major league season, and third with the Twins. He was an All-Star in 2023 and won a career-high 15 games last season.

Information from Field Level Media was used in this report.