A chat with Coco Crisp's agent

Just talked with Coco Crisp's agent, Steve Comte. He acknowledged the Twins and Red Sox have talked about Crisp.

"Needless to say, Covelli's name has been mentioned in numerous scenarios, a couple of which are with Minnesota," he said. (Comte always uses Crisp's real first name, Covelli.)

"A couple of which" likely means the Twins have approached the Red Sox about a trade for Crisp that wouldn't be part of a deal for Johan Santana and about a trade that does involve Santana.

Also talked with Twins pitching coach Rick Anderson today about his 2008 rotation. Asked if he has any reason to believe Santana will be with the Twins come spring training, Anderson said, "No."

Look for more on Minnesota's pitchers in tomorrow's Pioneer Press.

Phil Miller will be in Nashville starting Sunday night for the winter meetings, so look for blog updates throughout next week from him.

-- Kelsie Smith

Twins acquire Craig Monroe

The Minnesota Twins announced today that they have acquired outfielder Craig Monroe from the Chicago Cubs for a player to be named later.

In August, the Tigers designated Monroe for assignment during a disappointing season and after he had been replaced by Marcus Thames in left field. Nearly one week later, Detroit traded Monroe to the Cubs for a player to be named.

Look for more on this in tomorrow's Pioneer Press.

Monroe's stats from the Twins press release ...

Monroe, 30, batted .219 (86-for-392) with 23 doubles, 12 home runs and 59 rbi in 122 games last season (99 with Detroit and 23 with Chicago). He was traded from the Tigers to the Cubs on August 22, 2007. In 2006, he batted .255 (138-for-541) with 35 doubles, two triples, 28 home runs and 92 rbi for the Tigers.

The 6-foot-1, 205-pounder has a career batting average of .256 (628-for-2499) with 135 doubles, nine triples, 104 home runs and 388 rbi in 722 games.

Santana and Hunter win Gold Gloves

Twins pitcher Johan Santana and center fielder Torii Hunter have been selected as Rawlings Gold Glove winners for the 2007 season. It's Hunter's seventh Gold Glove in as many years (and puts him ahead of Kirby Puckett's six Gold Gloves) and Santana's first.

Look for more in Wednesday's Pioneer Press. For now, here's some information from the Twins press release ...

Hunter, 32, batted .287 (172-600) with 45 doubles, one triple, 28 home runs, 107 rbi and 18 stolen bases in 160 games in 2007 for the Twins. Hunter led the club in games, at-bats, runs, hits and doubles, and was second in home runs, rbi and stolen bases.

He had a .995 (2 E, 394 TC) fielding percentage with five outfield assists last season and has a career fielding percentage of .991 (28 E, 3171 TC) with 72 outfield assists. Hunter becomes just the second Twin to be at least a seven-time winner (Jim Kaat, 11) and the first since Kaat (1962-72) to win the award in seven consecutive seasons. It also marks the 14th time the award has been given to a Twins outfielder.

Santana, 28, was 15-13, 3.33 (219.0 ip, 81 er) in 33 starts, with 52 walks and 235 strikeouts for the Twins in 2007. He had a 1.000 (0 E, 40 TC) fielding percentage last season, and has a career fielding percentage of .932 (15 E, 221 TC). Santana’s four pickoffs were tied for the second most in the American League last season. He becomes just the second pitcher in club history to win the award and the first since Jim Kaat in 1972.

Twins' Minor-Leaguer Suspended

Hibbing native Eli Tintor, who played for the Twins’ Class A team in Beloit this season, has been suspended for 50 games for failing a drug test, the team announced Monday.

Tintor, who tested positive for a drug of abuse, will serve his suspension at the beginning of the 2008 season. He hit .286 with five home runs in the Midwest League this season, and was not invited to play for the Twins’ fall league or instructional league teams.

Drafted out of Hibbing in the 18th round of the 2003 draft, Tintor has been a catcher and outfielder for the Twins.

Tintor is the second Twins prospect to be suspended under the minor league drug policy this season. New Britain pitcher Anthony Swarzak served a 50-game suspension over the season's first three months.

Punto's Got a Job

Nick Punto is in tonight’s lineup against the Rangers, and he’s going to be in a lot of lineups next year, too, if his manager has his way. Despite Punto’s disastrous .205 season at the plate, Ron Gardenhire all but handed Punto the second base job on the 2008 Twins.

Punto is the best fielder on the team, Gardenhire said, and while he agrees that Punto doesn’t hit well enough to play third, traditionally a power position, he definitely wants Punto on the field. It’s probably safe to assume that Alexi Casilla’s two-month tryout with the Twins has convinced Gardenhire that the rookie needs another season in Rochester.

For his part, Punto said he plans to work harder this winter than ever before, to make sure there’s no repeat of this horrible season at the plate. And he seemed awfully thankful for Gardenhire’s unwavering support.

One other note: Left-hander Kason Gabbard has been scratched from Wednesday’s start for the Rangers. Vicente Padilla, who ignited a brawl with the A’s on Sunday, will fill that slot.

Tonight’s lineups:

RANGERS
Catalanotto dh
Murphy cf
Young ss
Byrd rf
Botts lf
Wilkerson 1b
Quiroz c
Vazquez 2b
Metcalf 3b

Volquez p

TWINS
Bartlett ss
Kubel dh
Mauer c
Hunter cf
Morneau 1b
Cuddyer rf
Jones lf
Buscher 3b
Punto 2b
Slowey p

Good Enough to Win

It was interesting to listen to Ron Gardenhire after Monday’s 4-2 win. He was OK with Boof Bonser’s performance -- five innings, two runs, in and out of trouble every inning -- but not really satisfied. He liked that Alexi Casilla cut down his swing, as instructed, and hit the ball on the ground in his first at-bat, collecting a base hit. But he wasn’t particularly happy that Casilla’s swing got longer as the night went on, and he popped the ball up in his next two left-handed at-bats.

Both outings were acceptable, mostly because the Twins won the game, 4-2. You got the feeling that his patience might not be so abundant if things had gone poorly.

Glen Perkins was activated before Tuesday’s game, as expected. He says he’s fine and looks forward to facing a few left-handed hitters. Gardenhire sounds a little reluctant to put him in Dennys Reyes’ old role as a one- or two-batter specialist, seeing him as a two- or three-inning guy. But I wonder if that opinion will change when Jim Thome or David Ortiz comes to the plate in the eighth inning some night.

Luis Rodriguez is in the lineup, not because of any particular matchup problem for Brian Buscher -- though Gardenhire said Rodriguez (and Jason Tyner, playing instead of Garrett Jones) might be better able to handle Kyle Davies’ cut fastball -- but just because he intends to play everybody in September.

Tonight’s lineups:

TWINS
Bartlett ss
Kubel dh
Mauer c
Hunter cf
Morneau 1b
Cuddyer rf
Tyner lf
Rodriguez 3b
Casilla 2b

Baker p

ROYALS
DeJesus cf
Grudzielanek 2b
Teahen rf
Sweeney dh
Gordon 3b
Butler 1b
Gathright lf
LaRue c
Pena ss

Davies p

Twins add catcher Morales to the roster

The Twins selected the contract of catcher Jose Morales from Class AAA Rochester today to help out Chris Heintz behind the plate while Joe Mauer (hamstring) and Mike Redmond (finger) recover from injuries.

In 108 games for the Red Wings this season, Morales batted .311 with 25 doubles, one triple, two home runs and 37 runs batted in. He played on the International League team in the Class AAA All-Star Game this July and was also named the catcher on the IL Postseason All-Star Team.

The Twins chose Morales, a converted infielder, in the third round of the 2001 draft. He will join the team in time for Friday's game at Chicago.