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• Last week Michael Cuddyer underwent knee surgery and now both Scott Baker and Nick Blackburn need elbow "clean ups." Blackburn missed just one start due to the injury, but told Joe Christensen of the Minneapolis Star Tribune that he's been pitching with discomfort "over the last couple years" and "just decided to get it taken care of now." Baker missed more time during the season and needed two cortisone shots, but both surgeries are considered minor.

• Kelly Thesier of MLB.com writes that the Twins "will likely decline" their $5 million option on Nick Punto for 2011. Not paying $5 million for a 33-year-old utility man who hit .238/.313/.302 this season and .247/.321/.322 for his career would normally be a no-brainer, but the Twins paid him $4 million in each of the past two years and ... well, I just can't see Ron Gardenhire letting Punto leave without a fight. His deal includes a $500,000 buyout of the option.

• Following the Twins' latest first-round playoff exit there's been lots of talk about needing to add a "true ace" to the rotation without anyone really defining exactly what "true ace" means. For many people it seemingly just means "a starter who pitches very well in the playoffs" even if that evaluation is made after the fact, but Bryan Smith of Fan Graphs crunched the numbers in an effort to determine exactly how each "spot" in the rotation performs across MLB.

• Miguel Sano is without question one of the Twins' best prospects, but I'm not sure what to call him at this point. When the Twins signed him out of the Dominican Republic last season for a record $3.15 million bonus he went by Miguel Angel Sano. For most of this season he was generally referred to as simply Miguel Sano. And now John Manuel of Baseball America notes that the 17-year-old infielder "wants to go by his dad's surname and be called Miguel Jean."

Old What's His Name batted .307/.379/.491 with seven homers, 24 total extra-base hits, and a 60/24 K/BB ratio in 61 games between two levels of rookie-ball in his professional debut.

• Tyler Robertson's prospect stock has declined during the past few seasons, in part because he's struggled to stay healthy and in part because his strikeout rate deteriorated as he moved up the minor-league ladder. He ranked 16th on my list of the Twins' prospects this winter, but went 4-13 with a 5.41 ERA in 27 starts at Double-A and Baseball America correspondent Phil Miller reports that the 22-year-old left-hander has been moved to the bullpen full time.

• Miller also wrote an interesting article about Max Kepler, the 17-year-old German outfielder who made his pro debut in the rookie-level Gulf Coast League and batted .286/.346/.343 in 37 games. Vice president for player personnel Mike Radcliff had all kinds of positive things to say about Kepler's first taste of pro ball and his numbers, while not jaw-dropping, are impressive for an extremely raw prospect who was one of the youngest players in the GCL.

• After spending the past few seasons as one of the Twins' secondary FSN television analysts Tim Laudner has taken a minor-league coaching job with ... the White Sox. According to Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune, after spending his entire nine-year career as a Twins catcher Laudner will focus on helping to develop the White Sox's catching prospects and could end up spending most of his time at Triple-A Charlotte.