Livan Hernandez for Francisco Liriano.

Craig Monroe for Randy Ruiz.

After thinking about it for awhile, I’m thinking: Why not?

The Twins had to get Liriano up here. He was one of their 12 best pitchers. And with Hernandez struggling lately, a path to the rotation opened up for the man nicknamed Franchise.

I just want to warn everyone that his may not be the same Liriano who was a force in 2006. If you’re thinking he’s going to roll out another 12-3, 2.16 run, think again. There was one outing in Rochester in which he lit up the gun. He threw 91-93 in most of the other starts. All I’m saying is, lower the expectations a little.

I didn’t see the Ruiz move coming, but it’s not a bad gamble. Monroe was batting .202 with 8 homers and 22 RBI and just wasn’t hitting lefties like the Twins needed. In the past week, I began to wonder if Monroe would be cut when Michael Cuddyer finally got healthy.

For now, give Ruiz a chance. His .320-17-68 at Rochester offers hope he can do more against lefties than Monroe did. Don’t expect him to play any first base. I watched him in spring training, and it wasn’t pretty.

As much as some of you would like to see Ruiz remain here the rest of the season, I’m guessing he’s the one to go when Cuddyer get healthy. That gives the Twins the DH spot to play with as they try to get Cuddyer, Denard Span, Carlos Gomez and Delmon Young in the lineup. Once again, Cuddy has to get healthy first, and there’s always a chance someone else breaks down by then.

It’s good to see the Twins finally address these issues. And while we can rip them all we want for signing these players in the first place, at least they are willing to eat salary and take the hit when they didn’t work out.

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