Twins Ink Hernandez

The Minnesota Twins have added a veteran pitcher to the team with their signing of Free Agent righty Livan Hernandez.

The native Cuban pitched well last year for the NL runner-up Arizona Diamondbacks and is well known for being an innings-eater.

"If we could find the right guy, we were going to add that," general manager Bill Smith said. "We certainly weren't afraid to go in without veteran starters, but it's going to be give those young players someone to look to."

Twins ace closer Joe Nathan, teammate of Hernandez formerly when they both played for the San Francisco Giants, thinks very highly of him.

"It's not so important to get a veteran guy just to have him there, if he's not going to be at the same level that the younger guy would be," Nathan said. "But you get a guy like this that has proven he throws a ton of innings and knows how to pitch, I think if you can pick up a guy like that, it's a great fit."

Many Twins fans will remember the recent free agent pitcher signings : Ramon Ortiz, Sidney Ponson and the media favorite Kenny Rogers. Those, with the exception of Rogers, did not pan out very well. So we will have to be cautious to accept this with joy just yet. But with a young staff, we'll gladly take an innings eater who seems to be quite personable.

The deal is worth 1 year and $5 million dollars. A safe contract that the Twins could get a lot of production out of.