Twins reliever Pat Neshek will have surgery tomorrow in the Twin Cities to repair a torn ulnar collateral ligament in this right elbow. Twins team physicians Dr. John Steubs and Dr. Dan Buss will conduct the surgery.

Neshek tore the ligament earlier this month while throwing at the Twins’ headquarters in Fort Myers. Fla., and is expected to miss the entire 2009 season. 

 Here are a bunch of other notes collected throughout the day….

RANTZ WINS AWARD

I just found out that Twins director of minor leagues Jim Rantz has won the inaugural Chief Bender Award for distinguished service in player development. Rantz, who has been with the Twins since Day One in 1961, will be honored next month during MLB’s winter meetings in Las Vegas.

I called Rantz earlier today to yak about minor leaguers and was unaware of the award until I clicked on the minor league baseball website and saw his picture on the homepage. I called back and pretended to be outraged that he didn’t say anything about it. Congrats, sir.

MANSHIP TO START TITLE GAME

Last year, Nick Blackburn was the starter and winning pitcher in the championship game of the Arizona Fall League. Jeff Manship will have a chance to follow Blackburn’s path. The Phoenix Desert Dogs have qualified for Saturday’s title game, and Manship has been named the starter in that game.

Manship is 2-1 with a 4,91 ERA in seven starts.

SOME GOOD, SOME BAD AT THE AFL

The Twins are generally pleased with how their lads are doing in the AFL - although some of them aren’t putting up great numbers.

Infielder Steven Tolleson, however, is among the league leaders with a .383 batting average and has added two homers and 20 RBI. “He’s had a good run,” Rantz said. “ but he’s missed a few games with some nagging injuries.”

As you can see, Danny Valencia has been terrible at the plate - but he’s committed just one error. “His defense has really tightened up,” Rantz said. “He’s worked hard at it and it is paying off.”

Dustin Martin? “He’s done O.K. He’s getting playing time against better competition.”

I don’t know what to make of Tim Lahey, Anthony Slama and Rob Delaney’s numbers. Someone told me last week that they were showing signs of wearing down but one bad outing by a reliever in a short season league can ruin numbers.

WINTER RETREAT WATCH 

Winter ball has been going on for awhile now. Luke Hughes already has 79 at-bats for Tigres in the Venezuelan league and is making the most of them, batting .304 with three doubles, two triples, two homers and 13 RBI in 23 games. This is a big offseason for Hughes, who has been moved to third base and could debut sometime during 2009.

Jose Mijares has allowed one earned run in 11.1 innings for Tigres.

Carlos Gomez has played four games for Escogido of the Dominican league, going 4 for 15.

I can’t wait until spring training to see some of the younger players - which leads me to my next note.

40-MAN DECISIONS LOOM

Thursday is the deadline for teams to submit their 40-man rosters. The Twins current have 31 spaces filled on theirs. I guess players like Valencia, Hughes and Delaney - if required, see thrylos’ post below  - would be added to the roster. And others should be invited to camp.

Can’t remember if Joe C. had this or not, but the Twins did re-sign infielder Alejandro Machado and lefthanders Jose Lugo and Ben Julianel to minor league deals. Julianel was the pitcher I ranted about last season because he was 27 and pitching at New Britain when Slama was stuck at Fort Myers with nothing left to prove. Julianel should be at Rochester next year now that Carmen Cali and Ricky Barrett are gone. So Slama, a fine relief prospect, should open the season at New Britain.

Was told that Machado, Lugo (who has a good fastball) and Julianel will be in the major league spring training camp.

WHAT ABOUT FREE AGENTS?

Don’t have any updates on the Casey Blake front. I still expect the Twins to present him a contract offer this week. It sounds like the sides have had a few discussions about a merger.

Some of you have wondered about righthander Juan Cruz  drawing interest from the Twins. I have too, after eyeing his 71 strikeouts in 51 innings last season (lot of walks, however). I spoke with someone familliar with Cruz’s situation over the weekend.

Cruz is getting some nibbles from teams that don’t want to spend K-Rod money for a closer. If he’s not a closer, there’s a good chance his deal will include provisions for any games he saves. So it looks like Cruz will look for opportunities to close. Since Joe Nathan is the Twins’ closer, there might not be a match here. The situation could change if Cruz can’t find the right fit and is willing to sign as a set-up man. For now, I don’t see the Twins signing him. 

Update: Cruz also is a Type A free agent, so the chances that the Twins would sign him and give up their first round draft choice is waaaaaaaaaay below zero.

Joe C., Mrs. Joe C., and almost-ready-for-prime-time Baby C. (due date next month) are away for the weekend. And I am finally free of writing Gopher football-related stuff to get back to baseball.

I’m glad. The football SID is blaming my presence for their losses to Northwestern and Michgan, and one elderly local sportswriter yelled at me,“you are the Kiss of Death,” moments after the loss to Michigan.

“If I’m the Kiss of Death,” I replied. “Pucker up.”

Anyway, I’ve been asked to join Mr. Phunn on The Fan at 4:20 today to talk Twins and hot stove baseball. Little did I know then that the producer also lined up Twins manager Ron Gardenhire to join us for the segment. That’s right, Gardy, Phunn and III at 4:20 today on The Fan. Should be entertaining….

Don’t have any major news to report, yet. But I’m 99 percent sure I will have a free agent update here around 5 p.m. I know that doesn’t help those of you headed for happy hour, the cabin, deer-killing or to Madison for the Gophers loss, er, game against The Badge. But I need to verifty one more thing before spewing it out into cyberspace.

In case you were wondering, MLB postseason awards will start rolling out today with the announcement of the Jackie Robinson AL and NL rookies of the year - which should go to  Evan Longoria and Geovany Soto, respectively. Here’s the rest of the schedule, followed with my predictions:  

Tuesday, November 11: NL Cy Young Award - Brandon Webb, although it’s not with a lot of conviction.

Wednesday, November 12: AL Manager of the Year. Joe Maddon.

Wednesday, November 12: NL Manager of the Year. Lou Piniella.

Thursday, November 13: AL Cy Young. Cliff Lee.

Monday, November 17: NL Most Valuable Player. Albert Pujols

Tuesday, November 18: AL Most Valuable Player. Dustin Pedroia.

Our ballots are due at the end of the regular season, so postseason efforts do not factor. And, in most cases, we are assigned one award.

Joe C. has been monitoring Twins news lately while I’ve been busy jinxing the Gophers’ football team. He mentioned a few names of players the club has kicked around. I’m not that fired up about Casey Blake because he’s going to be 36 next season but I must admit that 20 homers and 80 RBI would blow away what Twins third baseman have done recently.

Now, as soon as I wrote that I thought, `Let me check the numbers to make sure.’ Twins third basemen went .283/.330/.399 last season with 7 homers and 91 RBI

91?!?!

Check it out. I remember, like, five of Mike Lamb’s RBI.

Of the list of possible targets, J.J. Hardy jumps out at me. He’s 26, has pop and can play short or third base. He solves problems. To get him, the Twins might have to trade one of their starters but you’d still bring back four starters with a battle among several pitchers for the fifth spot.

Question: Would you consider this man as a fall back plan if the Brewers ask for too much for Hardy?

I’ve been told that Kevin Kouzmanoff isn’t the sweetest defensive player. His walks and strikeouts are very appealing either.

But….

Home: .226/.269/.390 with 11 homers and 38 RBI

Road: .292/.329/.488 with 12 homers and 46 RBI

Does Petco park negatively affect mashers? Can we glean from those numbers that he’d hit better at the Dome (then Target Field) than Petco?

At least we’re hearing about some players who are more than stopgap solutions.

I’ve also heard the Twins were looking at LaTroy Hawkins before he re-signed with Houston and there might be some interest in Oakland’s Huston Street.

I guess I didn’t read all the stories about the Red Sox pulling out of talks with Sarasota and agreeing to a deal to remain in Fort Myers for spring training.

This story here says that the Fort Myers deal may be $20 million more than Sarasota. And I thought the Red Sox went back to Fort Myers because Sarasota wouldn’t spend the money in this current economy.

I don’t get it. Lee County, Florida has had as many foreclosures as any county in the nation over the past year or so.  A friend recently returned from Fort Myers and said he noticed a couple dining establishments had closed. The county seemed to draw a line in the sand when it came to battling with Sarasota to keep the Red Sox. In the end, they came up with the cash. Wow.

Anyway, according to this story the ballpark will be located not far from the Lee County Sports Complex, where the Twins play.

And while City of Palms Park is a nice place to watch a game, Fort Myers officials better be prepared to upgrade the fields at the training complex if they are to entice a team to move there. Still, it would be great to get a third team there.

And, while many of us expect the Orioles to land at Vero Beach to replace the Dodgers, Sarasota is making a play for Baltimore now that Boston is out of the picture.

Why am I sweating all of this? THE FEWER MILES I HAVE TO DRIVE FROM CAMP TO CAMP, THE BETTER!

After realizing that pushing for a cushy stadium deal in this economic climate is insane, the Boston Red Sox have reached agreement with Fort Myers, Fla, that should keep them in town for another 30 years.

Boston met several times in recent weeks with Sarasota officials about moving their spring training base there. But the cost of giving the Red Sox what they wanted was just too much with the economy in flux.

So the Red Sox turned back to Fort Myers and worked out a long-term deal. The Red Sox currently don’t have a great set-up, logistically. They work out on fields a couple miles away from City of Palms Park. The Twins, on the other hand, have a set-up that many teams envy: several fields and a main stadium at one site. And fans are allowed to walk around most of the complex.

But here’s one nugget of the story that got my attention:

The Red Sox will move into the new facility in 2012….with the vacancy coming at City of Palms Park, the Sox were on board with Lee County attempting to lure a third team to the area, joining the Sox and Twins.

When I arrived in Fort Myers for my first Twins spring training in 1998, I thought I was in a semi-sleepy town. Fort Myers has grown since them, and I think it’s big enough for a third team - although the visions of gridlock there are making my fingers tremble as I write this.

Cleveland sniffed around Fort Myers a couple times and even approached the Twins once about sharing their site at the Lee County Sports Complex. The Twins, smartly, declined. But the Tribe are on their way to Goodyear, Ariz., next year.

The Reds are headed to Arizona after cutting ties with Sarasota. The Dodgers have ended their long association with Vero Beach and are headed to the Cactus League too. The Orioles, who played in the worst stadium on the spring circuit, are replacing The Dodge at Vero.

So who knows which team could become the third wheel in Fort Myers? Maybe the city can be the first to lure a team out West back to Florida after watching so many teams migrate out there in recent years. But it would be easier for fans to visit spring training and catch a game.