The Twins have signed starting pitcher Livan Hernandez to a one-year, $5 million contract, the Star Tribune has learned. The signing was first reported by FoxSports.com.

Hernandez, who turns 33 on Feb. 20, went 11-11 with a 4.93 ERA last season for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

He made $7 million last year for Arizona, and a person familiar with the negotiations said his new deal includes incentives that can bring the value to $7 million.

After trading Johan Santana to the Mets and losing Carlos Silva to free agency, the Twins had lost two workhorses who combined to pitch 421 innings last year. Since 2000, Hernandez’s year-by-year inning totals are 240, 226, 216, 233, 255, 246, 216 and 204.

The Twins had said they weren’t interested in signing a veteran pitcher if they thought he would only block a path for their younger starters, as Sidney Ponson and Ramon Ortiz did last year. But in a thin free agent class, Hernandez was one of the better starters on the board.

His signing shows how the market has shrunk since Silva signed his four-year, $48 million contract with the Mariners on Dec. 20.

The Twins’ starting rotation now could look something like this: Francisco Liriano, Scott Baker, Hernandez, Boof Bonser and Kevin Slowey — with Glen Perkins, Nick Blackburn, Phil Humber, Kevin Mulvey, Brian Duensing, Zach Day and Randy Keisler all challenging for spots.

Update: The Twins plan to make an official announcement about the Hernandez signing at 2 p.m.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 12th, 2008 at 10:14 am and is filed under Twins thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.