The Twins have signed 26-year old lefty starting pitcher Luke French to a minor league deal. French pitched in 26 games (all starts) in AAA-ball last year and he was 9-9 with a 6.27 ERA and a 1.76 WHIP. French last pitched in the majors in 2010 with the Mariners. He has now pitched in 31 games (25 starts) in his first two years in the majors and he is 9-12 with a 4.99 ERA and a 1.50 WHIP. French will likely start the 2012 season in AAA-ball for the Twins.

The Twins have signed 29-year old righty reliever Brad Thompson to a minor league deal. He didn’t pitch last season, by choice. He last pitched in the majors in 2010 with the Royals. Thompson has now pitched in 201 games (32 starts) in his first six years in the majors and he is 21-21 with 1 save, a 4.46 ERA and a 1.39 WHIP. Thompson will get a shot to win a job in the Twins’ pen this spring.

The Twins wanted to spread their free agent dollars around and net as many good players as they could get. They seem to achieved their goal. Here is a look at the new guys for 2012 so far:

In the field: The Twins went out and signed three new players for the starting lineup in 2012. DH/C Ryan Doumit, SS Jamey Carroll and LF Josh Willingham. Willingham and Doumit should be able to replace the power lost when Jason Kubel (Diamdondbacks) and Michael Cuddyer (Rockies) decided to leave the Twins over the winter. Jamey Carroll is a hard nosed gamer who should hit for a high average for the Twins in 2012. Catcher J.R. Towles and 3B Sean Burroughs have been brought in on minor league deals and they will compete for bench spots this spring.

On the mound - The Twins inked veteran righty Jason Marquis to join the rotation for 2012 and he’s a decent pitcher. The Twins also claimed lefty starter/reliever Matt Maloney off waivers from the Reds and they signed righty reliever Joel Zumaya. Maloney and Zumaya both have nice upsides if they can stay healthy.

Overall: I think the Twins have made some nice upgrades, but it’s still going to be hard for them to get out of the basement in the A.L. Central.

The Vikings have signed 27-year old righty reliever Joel Zumaya to a minor league deal. Zumaya did not pitch at all last season due to injury. The Twins liked what they saw in his recent workouts, so they are giving him a chance to revive his promising major league career in 2011. Zumaya last pitched in the majors back in 2010 with the Tigers. Zumaya has now pitched in 171 games (0 starts) in his first five years in the majors and he is 13-12 with 5 saves, a 3.05 ERA and a 1.35 WHIP. He has only given up 169 hits in his first 209 2/3 innings of his major league career while also whiffing 210 batters as he has nasty stuff. Zumaya would be even more dominating if he threw more strikes as he has walked 114 batters so far in his major league career. This was a nice low risk/high reward signing for the Twins.

The Twins have signed 28-year old righty reliever Casey Fien. Fien pitched in 23 games (0 starts) in rookie+AAA-ball last year and he was 3-2 with 3 saves, a 4.44 ERA and a 1.41 WHIP. He last pitched in the majors back in 2010 for the Tigers. He has pitched in 11 games (0 starts) in parts of two years in the majors and he is 0-1 with a 8.36 ERA and a 1.64 WHIP. Fien will get a chance to win a bullpen job for the Twins this coming spring.