(*) 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.

Spoke to Joe Mauer on Wednesday night. I know everyone’s biggest question is about his next contract, and he did address that, saying talks haven’t really started. But he was responding to an interview request made Tuesday, after he’d won his second Gold Glove.

Turns out, Mauer was in Chicago while we were there for the GM Meetings. I saw an item in the Chicago Tribune about how Mauer was there as part of a new product unveiling for Gatorade. Mauer said it was a deal where the soft-drink company brings in employees from all over the country and introduces its new products. Turns out, Mauer was invited to speak.

“They made it a little easier for me, with a Q&A, and it worked out real well,” he said. Today’s special guest will be Serena Williams. Later, in the conference, it’ll be Usain Bolt. “Some pretty good athletes and then me,” Mauer said.

Does that mean Mauer will be part of Gatorade’s next ad campaign? “Well, I hope to be,” he said. “It was a good thing for me to kind of get to know them.”

GOLD GLOVE #2
Last year, Mauer said winning his first Gold Glove ranked among his proudest achievements. This one meant a lot, too.

“Being a catcher, especially, taking a lot of pride on the defensive side of things,” he said. “You’re an on-field manager. I take a lot of pride on the defensive side. It’s definitely cool to be voted by coaches and people that are watching you every day, that’s a good thing.”

Mauer remains one of the best defensive catchers in baseball, but this year’s numbers were down. According to Baseball-Reference.com, Mauer had a career-high nine passed balls (after having four in 2008) and caught 26 percent of opposing baserunners, compared to 36 percent last year and 53 percent in 2007.

“I think I might have said this last year — it was kind of a struggle, to tell you the truth,” Mauer said. “We had a very young staff. With a young staff it gets tough to control the running game, calling out pitches and trying to put them in situations where they can succeed. I wish I would have been a little better at throwing out runners and stuff, but I think we all know that takes a little more than the catcher.

“It was a frustrating year, but it was a very rewarding year also, to see those guys improve, definitely toward the end.”

I heard that Mauer led AL catchers in range factor. Not sure that’s the most important stat for a catcher, though, if you remember Mauer’s game-saving tag of the Yankees’ Brett Gardner on May 17, it comes in handy. It was one of the most unbelievable plays I’ve ever seen, and it’s interesting hearing Mauer describe what went through his mind.

“One of the things I like to do is kind of envision myself in different situations, so when they come up, it’s nothing new and I’m not overly excited or anything like that,” Mauer said. “That play, just in general, was one of those kind of plays that I’ve never seen before or even thought of, but just kind of reacting to the situation, knowing what the situation of the game was — if that guy scores, we’re done.

“I knew who was on second base before it happened, so you’re thinking, ‘OK our outfielders are going to be in to have a chance to throw this guy out.’ So you know what kind of speed you have on second. When I saw the ball coming my way, my first thing was try to get an out at first. But it was a long run out there, and the guy Gardner was in the back of my head, too, that he’s probably going to score from this. It all happened pretty quick, but you’ve got to know the situation going in, and if I can get that out at first (second out of the inning), the game’s over anyway.”

I’ll have more from the interview in coming days, including — ahem — coverage of a certain award announcement on Nov. 23 (AL MVP).