With the free agent market set to open tonight at 11 p.m. (Central), there’s an important piece by Ken Rosenthal on FoxSports.com today, about the growing tension between players and owners. Yes, the C-word gets mentioned again. Collusion.

Prominent agent Scott Boras basically says follow the money. Though his estimates are disputed by MLB officials, he points to the tens of millions teams are receiving from the central fund — from national TV contracts, licensing, etc. — and the tens of millions more some teams get in revenue sharing, and concludes some are pocketing the cash, instead of re-investing in payroll.

Rob Manfred, MLB’s chief of labor negotiations, counters: “Just like when [Boras] does a player negotiation he lies about the numbers in order to get the price up, now he’s taken that to the macro-economic level and lying about industry numbers in order to get player [contract] numbers up,” Manfred said. “There is no one club getting $80 or $90 million in combination from revenue sharing and Central Baseball. Not one.”

Rosenthal notes that the owners and players have agreed to shelve any collusion grievance until after the offseason. But the current collective bargaining agreement expires after 2011, and baseball’s unprecedented stretch of labor peace could be in jeopardy.

For now, with the economy struggling and amid hints that some teams are determined to trim payroll (Tigers, Reds, etc.), this creates an interesting backdrop as the current free agent class begins testing the market.

(*) Twins manager Ron Gardenhire finished second to the Angels’ Mike Scioscia in AL Manager of the Year voting. Here’s how the voting went, according to the BBWAA web site:

Manager (1st-2nd-3rd-Points)
Mike Scioscia (15-10-1-106)
Ron Gardenhire (6-12-6-72)
Joe Girardi (4-3-5-34)
Ron Washington (1-1-11-19)
Jim Leyland (0-0-2-2)

(*) Also, FoxSports.com quotes free agent pitcher Jarrod Washburn as saying the Twins and Brewers are on his radar, with the Mariners in the mix, too.

(*) The AL Manager of the Year announcement comes today at 1 p.m. (corrected), and though Twins manager Ron Gardenhire will be in the mix again, the leading candidate is Angels manager Mike Scioscia. Gardenhire has finished second for this award so many times, I’m losing track. The NL Manager award will be announced at 2:30.

(*) The L.A. Times reports that the Twins have spoken to Mark DeRosa’s agent, Keith Grunewald, who says a dozen teams have inquired, including the Dodgers, Cardinals, Mariners, Nationals, Giants, Phillies, Orioles, Rangers, Yankees, Mets and Braves. The Twins had interest in trading for DeRosa last offseason when he was with the Cubs. Grunewald told the Times that DeRosa is seeking a multi-year deal. (Hat tip TwinsGeek.)

(*) According to Baseball America, the Twins have a total of eight minor-league free agents:

RHP: Frank Mata (AA), Oswaldo Sosa (AA)
LHP: Reid Santos (AAA)
1B: Brock Peterson (AAA)
2B: Alejandro Machado (AA)
3B: Brian Buscher (AAA)
OF: Matt Moses (AA), David Winfree (AAA)

We’d mentioned Buscher and Winfree, but it’s worth noting that Moses was the Twins’ first-round pick in 2003.

(*) Teams have until Friday to set their 40-man rosters, which protects players for the Rule 5 Draft on Dec. 10. The Twins have some announcements to make, since they are currently at 35, excluding free agents Orlando Cabrera, Joe Crede, Ron Mahay, Carl Pavano, Mike Redmond. That doesn’t mean they will add five new players, as many teams leave themselves short heading into the Rule 5 Draft.

Update: The Manager of the Year announcements came at 1 p.m. (not 2, as I had written earlier), and Gardenhire did wind up finishing second to Scioscia in the AL, with Jim Tracy winning in the NL.

Today at noon, the Twins will unveil a major redesign of their road uniforms, and introduce a new alternate home uniform — 1961 throwbacks, commemorating their 50th season in Minnesota.

Scott Baker and Denard Span will be on hand at the IDS Crystal Court, as the team also unveils a subtle tweak to the main home uniform, a slight change with the script, I’ve been told. The team is being very secretive with details, but we will have more on this after the announcement.

Also, there is word that RHP Juan Morillo and 1B Justin Huber have indeed signed to play in Japan. The Twins would gain compensation for losing Morillo after placing him on the 40-man roster, but not for Huber, who was trimmed last week. Those transactions will be announced later today.

Update: Back from the unveiling. The 1961 throwbacks are outstanding — off-white, a real classic look. The road unis are a nice improvement — pinstripes are gone, TC hat, Minnesota written across front in script. Here’s a link to some images, but you need to see them on the players themselves. Hopefully we’ll have our photos up soon.

Today’s Twins notebook has updates on Joe Crede’s latest back surgery, Jarrod Washburn’s knee surgery, Joe Mauer’s latest Silver Slugger Award (no surprise), David Winfree’s free agent status, and word that the team will be unveiling new-look road uniforms on Monday, over the noon hour at IDS Crystal Court.

Hat tip to SethSpeaks.net on the Winfree item. Winfree was the Twins’ 2005 minor-league player of the year, and they are trying to re-sign him to a minor-league deal.

I’d heard the Twins were a little disappointed with 3B prospect Danny Valencia not playing winter ball.* It’s been said that the Twins can’t count on Valencia becoming next year’s Opening Day 3B when he wasn’t even promoted as a September call-up. But Twins GM Bill Smith isn’t ruling out anything.

(* - Got a tip that Valencia is indeed considering playing one month of winter ball in the Dominican Republic or Venezuela.)

“That will all be determined by Opening Day,” Smith said. “If [Valencia] goes to spring training, and has a great spring training, then that all takes care of itself. We don’t determine all that in November.”

Luke Hughes will be in the mix, too.

“Valencia started [2009] in Double-A, and Hughes started in Triple-A,” Smith said. “When Hughes got hurt, Valencia moved up and did very well in Triple-A. We moved Hughes back to Double-A so they could both play every day, and they both did well. We’ll use that as a springboard to spring training, and we’ll see how everybody does in spring training. I’m sure we’ll have a lot of spirited competition.”

Valencia is considered a better prospect. His combined stat line this year was .285/.337/.466.

Hughes’ combined stat line was .254/.335/.466. But keep in mind that one year earlier, Hughes was in the All-Star Futures Game, and posted a combined line of .309/.369/.524 in a season spent mostly at AA New Britain, with 29 games at Rochester. At 3B, Hughes isn’t as good as Valencia defensively, but don’t count out Hughes just yet.

I also want to clarify a couple of roster notes.

(*) Brian Buscher will become a minor-league free agent on Nov. 20. He was on the 40-man roster, and the Twins did not offer him a 2010 contract before outrighting him to Class AAA Rochester. With Valencia and Hughes, they can’t guarrantee Buscher playing time at third base in the high minors, so they want to give him a chance to explore his options.

(*) 1B Justin Huber also was trimmed from the 40-man roster and outrighthed to Class AAA Rochester, but the Twins had first offered him a 2010 contract. He cleared waivers, so he’s in the fold for next year, which gives the Twins some added depth in case Justin Morneau gets injured again. Huber was extremely well-liked at Rochester, so this is good news for the Twins.