Adam Everett is listed on the roster at 6-foot-0, 170 pounds and widely considered among the best defensive shortstops in baseball. But on June 14, he went back for a fly ball, and … “Houston, we have a problem.”

Also chasing that fly ball was Astros left fielder Carlos Lee — all 6-2, 240 pounds of him. They collided (photo courtesy Houston Chronicle). Everett broke his right fibula. The healing process took longer than expected, and he didn’t return until Sept. 20, playing just three games before season’s end.

I spoke to Everett’s agent, Keith Grunewald, and he said Everett is back to 100 percent. In fact, Everett went to Houston on Tuesday to run in front of the Astros’ trainers, and everyone seemed encouraged. But the next day, Houston completed a long-anticipated trade for Baltimore shortstop Miguel Tejada. With no place for Everett, the Astros non-tendered him.

“We saw this trade [for Tejada] coming for two years, I guess,” Grunewald said. “But the Astros have always been very good for Adam. He certainly appreciates his time there. Now he’s looking forward to his time with the Twins. They have a great organization.”

Everett made $2.8 million last season, and the Twins signed him to a one-year, $2.8 million deal with up to $200,000 in incentives. I think it’s a good signing. As Manager Ron Gardenhire said at the winter meetings, there was nothing certain about the infield other than first baseman Justin Morneau.

I think Nick Punto, Alexi Casilla and Brendan Harris could cover the two middle-infield positions, but I imagined the look on Gardenhire’s face this spring with the lingering uncertainty at shortstop, and it wasn’t pretty.

I’ve listened to Gardy talk about the importance of having a shortstop who can “quarterback” the infield, steadying the entire infield defense. Jason Bartlett grew into that role. Everett already has it mastered. As La Velle wrote today, Gary Gaetti, a four-time Gold Glove Award winner himself, rates Everett’s defense with an 8 on a 2-8 scale.

Anytime a player suffers a broken leg, you have to wonder if he’ll be able to regain his range. A baseball exec once told me that few things decline in baseball as quickly as a middle-infielder’s range as he approaches age 30. Everett turns 31 in February. And for all his defensive skills, he also falls into the category of all-glove, no stick.

He is a career .248 hitter, and his OPS-plus, which compares him to the league average and adjusts for his time at hitter-friendly Minute Maid Park, is a lowly 69. Among the most similar hitters through age 30, Baseball Reference lists former Twins second baseman Rob Wilfong.

Aaron Gleeman gave a thorough breakdown of the Everett signing today, using some of the most sophisticated statistics you’ll find, including Revised Zone Rating (not just Zone Rating, Revised Zone Rating) and VORP (value over replacement player). As usual, Gleeman adds meaning to those numbers with his own analysis.

If there’s one player in all of baseball whose glove can balance out the damage done by a .650 OPS it’s Everett. He’s basically the player that the Twins misguidedly thought they had in [Juan] Castro, providing replacement-level offense and legitimately phenomenal defense (as opposed to Castro’s sub-replacement level offense and illegitimately phenomenal defense). Everett might be 15-20 runs worse than [Brendan] Harris and [David] Eckstein offensively, but he makes up for that and then some defensively.

Everett turns 31 years old in February and missed most of 2007 with a fractured fibula suffered while ranging into left field chasing a fly ball, so there’s a chance that his days of providing dominant defense are in the rear-view mirror. However, he was fantastic prior to suffering the injury and even a slight drop-off in his glovework would leave the Twins with a valuable player at a reasonable cost. Their value comes in different packages, but the Twins have more or less replaced Bartlett with an equal player.

Replacing Bartlett with a veteran equal, and filling a major infield hole during a tumultuous offseason seems like a good move to me, especially when the risk is only a one-year, $2.8 million commitment.

The Twins signed former Houston Astros shortstop Adam Everett to a one-year, $2.8 million deal today.

The signing was originally reported by FoxSports.com, and La Velle had the news confirmed with a team official. The Twins look for Everett to be their starting shortstop. Scouts rave about his defense. The Astros non-tendered Everett following their trade Wednesday for Baltimore shortstop Miguel Tejada.Everett, who turns 31 on Feb. 2, batted .232 with a .281 on-base percentage and .318 slugging percentage in 66 games with the Astros last season and missed three months with a broken leg. His career batting average is .248.

Update: The Twins made it official, announcing that Everett has signed a one-year deal.

Update: Everett’s deal is for $2.8 million with $200,000 in incentives. Everett also made $2.8 million last year.

La Velle and I are perched at Star Tribune headquarters, ready to respond to breaking news in the Mitchell Report, which is set to be released at 1 p.m.

From what we’ve been able to gather, we don’t expect major revelations about the Twins. But as you can tell from ESPN’s coverage of the Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte allegations, this promises to be a landmark day.

Clemens and Pettitte are among the 64 names we’ve seen before since they had reportedly been redacted from the Jason Grimsley Affadavit. So for those who have followed those stories, they weren’t a huge surprise. Still, if the Mitchell Report lays out hard evidence against players of their stature, the gloves will come off, and people will have a hardened view toward baseball.

Here’s a link a website that details what had been reported about those 64 names leading up to today. Baseball’s history is about to be rewritten.

The Twins did not tender Jason Tyner a contract today, at the deadline to offer 2008 contracts, General Manager Bill Smith said.

They non-tendered Tyner but tendered offers to their five other arbitration eligible players: Juan Rincon, Matt Guerrier, Jason Kubel, Justin Morneau and Michael Cuddyer.

Twins GM Bill Smith said it was tough to give Tyner the news.

“It really was because he’s such a good person, and he’s been a good contributor and good piece of this organization,” Smith said. “We just didn’t think we had enough at-bats for him.”

Over on his blog, Seth Stohs is reporting that Twins outfielder Jason Tyner was non-tendered last night. I have not been able to confirm that news this morning, but I have calls in to Jason and his agent.

I do know the Twins have discussed the possibility of non-tendering Tyner rather than take him through arbitration. He made $400,000 last year and could make $1 million in his first year of arbitration. With Craig Monroe officially in the fold, the Twins have four outfielders — Monroe, Jason Kubel, Delmon Young and Michael Cuddyer — and still plan to acquire a starting center fielder. That wouldn’t leave much room for Tyner.

I know he has enjoyed his time with the Twins, and I know they’ve been happy with his performance, so I thought there was some chance they would work out a one-year deal. But if Seth’s source — a little birdie, he called it — is correct, Tyner will become a free agent.

I don’t see that happening with the Twins five other arbitration eligible players — Cuddyer, Kubel, Justin Morneau, Juan Rincon and Matt Guerrier. Others have mentioned Rincon as a non-tender candidate. I could be wrong, but I don’t see it. The deadline is 11 p.m., tonight, but we’ve been told that the Twins should have an announcement by late afternoon.