(*) Giants RHP Tim Lincecum won the NL Cy Young Award, with the Diamondbacks’ Brandon Webb finishing second in the voting.

The AL Cy Young Award winner will be named Thursday.

(*) On Wednesday, the AL and NL managers of the year are announced. Twins skipper Ron Gardenhire likely will finish second in the AL voting behind Tampa Bay’s Joe Maddon.

The Twins recently agreed to a two-year extension with Gardenhire, which will keep him under contract through 2011, though the team is waiting to announce the deal until they finish agreement with the coaching staff. All of the coaches are expected to get two-year deals.

(*) Pat Neshek is seeing Twins physician Dr. Dan Buss today, and undergoing another MRI exam on his right elbow. Will post an update here as soon as I get one.

Twins reliever Pat Neshek will undergo a magnetic resonance imaging exam on his right elbow Tuesday after experiencing discomfort during his throwing program last week in Fort Myers, Fla., General Manager Bill Smith said.

Neshek, 28, injured the elbow May 9 in Chicago and missed the rest of the season. He had an MRI at the time and was diagnosed with an acute partial tear of the ulnar collateral ligament. The Twins recommended that he rehab the injury instead of having surgery.

Neshek began his throwing program in September and had hoped to be back to 100 percent by spring training. Smith said Neshek felt something in the elbow after throwing a pitch last week. Neshek traveled to the Twin Cities today and will be examined Tuesday by Dr. Dan Buss.

Neshek is 11-5 with a 2.91 ERA in 121 career appearances with the Twins and has held opposing hitters to a .188 batting average.

Neshek has given occasional updates on his rehab progress on his blog. The last one came Oct. 19:

Everything is still going as planned…About a week from today I will be throwing off the mound and a week after that I will be mixing in my slider.  I’m pretty sure things will go well since I haven’t had a problem since I hurt my arm back in May.  If everything goes well I will be finishing up my throwing/rehab program on Nov 14th.

Tampa Bay 3B Evan Longoria was named American League rookie of the year today. White Sox 2B Alexei Ramirez finished second in the voting, and Red Sox OF Jacoby Ellsbury finished third.

Among those receiving votes, Twins RF Denard Span received three and Twins RHP Nick Blackburn received one.

Cubs C Geovany Soto won NL rookie honors.

Also, several sites are reporting the Rockies and A’s are close to a deal that would send LF Matt Holliday to Oakland. Ken Rosenthal mentions OF Carlos Gonzalez, RHP Huston Street and LHP Greg Smith as Oakland players the teams discussed this weekend.

The Holliday deal could clear the way for Colorado to deal 3B Garrett Atkins, and the Rockies have spoken to the Twins. Before you get too excited about those prospects, you should read today’s post from Aaron Gleeman:

However, once you wipe away perceptions, reputations, and name recognition there simply isn’t that much difference in performance between Atkins and Buscher-Harris.

Note: Add infielder Howie Clark (AAA) to the list of Twins’ minor-league free agents.

Baseball America compiled a list of 561 minor-league free agents, including the following 13 from the Twins:

RHP: Julio DePaula (AAA), Danny Graves (AAA), Tom Shearn (AAA)
LHP: Ricky Barrett (AAA), Carmen Cali (AAA), Mariano Gomez (AAA), Jason Miller (AA)
1B: Garrett Jones (AAA)
2B: Felix Molina (AA)
SS: Sergio Santos (AAA)
OF: Joe Gaetti (AA), Darnell McDonald (AAA), Tommy Watkins (AAA)

Note: Infielder Howie Clark (AAA) was left off this list, but he also is a minor-league free agent.

Those players are free to re-sign with the Twins or find another organization.

The Twins ranked 21st out of 30 major league teams in OPS at third base last season, at .730. Mike Lamb was just plain terrible before Brian Buscher and Brendan Harris eventually gave the Twins a serviceable platoon.

Still, Twins 3B combined to hit seven homers, ranking 29th in the majors.

The Twins were 24th in OPS at shortstop, at .648. Adam Everett was injured and even less productive than expected before Nick Punto took over, quietly turning in a bounce-back season from his miserable 2007.

With six homers from their SS, the Twins ranked 22nd in the majors.

Punto is a free agent, but the Twins are determined to upgrade offensively at both positions on the left side of their infield. Besides Garrett Atkins, they have targeted Casey Blake, J.J. Hardy and Yunel Escobar, as we learned Friday.

Kevin Kouzmanoff could very well be on that list, though no one mentioned that name specifically.

There are pros and cons to each player, but each is a righthanded hitter with pop in his bat. A quick thumb-nail sketch on each:

Garrett Atkins, Rockies 3B

Age: 28 (turns 29 on Dec. 12)

Contract: Made $4.4 million this year in his first year arbitration, and will likely be in the $6m-$7m range next year. Will be eligible for free agency after 2010.

Stats: Batted .286/.328/.452 (.780 OPS) with 21 homers, 32 doubles and 99 RBI this year. Since 2007, he has batted only .244/.303/.415(.718 OPS) away from Coors Field.

Casey Blake, Free agent 3B

Age: 35 (turns 36 on Aug. 23)

Contract: Made $6.1 million this year and will likely get a three-year deal on the free agent market.

Stats: Batted .274/.345/.463 (.808 OPS) with 21 homers, 36 doubles and 81 RBI this year for the Indians and Dodgers. He has averaged 596 plate appearances over the past six seasons, a testament to his durability. 

J.J. Hardy, Brewers SS

Age: 26 (turns 27 on Aug. 19)

Contract: Made $2.65 million this year in his first year of arbitration and will likely approach $5m by next season. Will be eligible for free agency after 2010.

Stats: Batted .283/.343/.478 (.821 OPS) with 24 homers, 31 doubles and 74 RBI.

Yunel Escobar, Braves SS

Age: 26 (turns 27 next Nov. 2)

Contract: Made $402,500 this year in his second major league season and will get only a slight raise for next year. A strong Super-2 arbitration candidate by next year at this time, but he won’t be eligible for free agency until 2013.

Stats: He batted .288/.366/.401 (.767 OPS) with 10 HR, 24 doubles and 60 RBI this year. As a rookie in 2007, he batted .326/.385/.451 (.836 OPS) in 94 games.

Kevin Kouzmanoff, Padres 3B

Age: Age 27 (turns 28 on July 25)

Contract: Made $410,000 in his second full major league season and won’t be arbitration eligible until after 2009. He’ll be eligible for free agency after 2012.

Stats: He batted .260/.299/.403 (.702 OPS) with 23 HR, 31 doubles and 84 RBI. Petco Park is tough on hitters. For his career, he’s batting .243/.290./.390 (.680 OPS) at home, and .282/.330/.488 (.818 OPS) on the road.