The Twins and Chicago Cubs have been discussing a trade that would send left fielder Craig Monroe to Minnesota for a player to be named, and an announcement could come as soon as today, the Star Tribune has learned.

UPDATE: It’s official. The Twins just e-mailed the announcement.

Monroe, 30, hit 28 home runs for the Detroit Tigers in 2006 and five more in the post season as they reached the World Series. But the Tigers designated him for assignment in August after he batted .222 with 11 home runs and 55 RBI.

After being traded to the Cubs, Monroe batted .204 with one home run in 23 games.

He made $4.8 million last season and is eligible for a raise through arbitration, so many in the industry viewed him as a non-tender candidate.

At that point, the Twins could bid on him as a free agent, but this move would be an aggressive push on their part to try and bolster their offense. Monroe and Jason Kubel could split time in left field, with the other serving as a DH.

Monroe has been a notorious Twins killer throughout his career, batting .322 against them with 13 home runs in 283 at-bats. He has batted .304 in 35 career games at the Metrodome.

Monroe is also close friends with free agent center fielder Torii Hunter, and the two work out together in the offseason at a facility outside Dallas.

The Detroit Tigers’ two biggest goals entering the offseason were finding a shortstop and a left fielder. They addressed shortstop by trading for Edgar Renteria, and now they are reportedly close to acquiring Jacque Jones from the Chicago Cubs for utility infielder Omar Infante, according to Jon Paul Morosi, of the Detroit Free Press.

Jones would play left field, perhaps splitting time there with Marcus Thames and Ryan Rayburn. Jones, who left the Twins as a free agent after the 2005 season, has one more year remaining on his contract, and he’ll be part of a stopgap for the Tigers until Cameron Maybin is ready to take over an everyday outfield position.

I had heard of the Kansas City Royals’ interest in Torii Hunter and figured it was sort of like the Twins’ interest in Mike Lowell — sure they’re interested, but at what price? Well, Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star has one source who called Hunter the top offseason priority for the Royals and another who calls the potential signing a long shot.

Meanwhile, Hunter expected to meet with White Sox GM Kenny Williams last night. Hunter has stressed to me and others that a team’s ability to compete for a World Series title will be a major factor in his decision. I’m sure the Royals, Rangers and Nationals will sell him on their 2- and 3-year plans, mentioning all the young players they’ve been acquiring. But the guess here is Hunter will land with a more proven club from a big market, such as the White Sox or Braves.

This week at the GM Meetings, I asked Oakland GM Billy Beane for his perspective on the Twins’ Johan Santana dilemma, since he’s the one who traded Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder in a three-day span in December 2004, breaking up the famous trio of Hudson, Mulder and Barry Zito.

I debated making Beane’s comments the focal point of my story today but wound up using them toward the end. Still, some of his words really resonated for me, so I decided to post a longer transcript here.

Q: Billy, the Twins have a dilemma with Johan right now –

A: Yeah, some dilemma. What a problem to have Johan Santana. Woe is us. (He chuckled a bit.)

Q: I’m just curious, looking back at the Hudson and Mulder trades, what was the tipping point for you?

A: (Turning serious) For us it wasn’t the individual players, it was more of where our club was. In our case, it was a matter of, if we went status quo, with that team, we were going to see a significant decline.

The tough thing with being in a Minnesota and Oakland market is when you hit bottom, you hit with a thud. And you usually don’t bounce.

So you’ve got to do some things that are preemptive, as opposed to reactive. So for us, it was a matter of, we need to do this now, even if it’s a year early, otherwise we’re going to steamroll and hit the bottom.

Being a small-market team, if you wait to sort of rebuild, longer than everyone else thought you should, you probably waited far too long.

Q: How did you handle the backlash from the media and the fans?

A: It’s part of the deal.

Listen, it would have been harder to make the deal if I was a first-year GM. Ironically, I remember telling my wife, ‘If you do something, something else is going to take you off the pages.’

I remember saying this to my owner, ‘Listen, let’s do both of these right now because USC plays Oklahoma in a couple weeks, and the football playoffs are starting. Let’s get it done.’

You can’t let that impact decision making. You know it does affect the decision making, but the less you let it, the better off you are.

If you know you’re going to do it, worrying about what somebody is going to say or write is not the way to make a decision.

ORLANDO — I know another media outlet has reported that the Twins and Cardinals are discussing a deal that would bring Scott Rolen to the Twins, but I just spoke with two Twins officials who said they have had no discussions about Rolen whatsoever.

The Twins need a third baseman, and it’s a good bet that Rolen wants to be traded because of his long running feud with Tony La Russa. His agents, Sam and Seth Levinson, were spotted in Orlando chatting with new Cardinals GM John Mozeliak. But Rolen also has a complete no-trade clause and a contract that will pay him $36 million over the next three years.

With the Metrodome’s turf, Minnesota probably wouldn’t be a preferred landing spot for Rolen. And with his history of back problems, he’s not a good fit for the Twins at his salary, either.

Anyway, I’ve got a flight to catch, and there are bound to be other rumors flying coming out of these GM Meetings. But I wanted to clear that one up for you all ASAP.