A couple of weeks ago, we took a look at the Minnesota Twins’ lineup as it was constructed at that time. What we saw was pretty ugly. Outside of Denard Span, Joe Mauer, and Justin Morneau(and who knows if the later two will be healthy all season), the Twins didn’t have much. As a matter of fact, their lineup looked down-right sad.

Doumit should help the Twins' offense in 2012

But on Friday, the Twins added a player that I think can really help them.

The Twins signed C/1B/DH Ryan Doumit to a one-year, $3 million contract. I think this is a steal for the Twins.

We had in our Free Agent Primer post, Doumit has the best low-risk, high reward player on the free agent market. In 77 games last season with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Doumit had an .830 OPS and eight HR’s. Throughout his career, Doumit has averaged 18 HR’s and a .777 OPS over 162 games.

So the key was to get Doumit out of the catcher spot where he has played throughout his Major League career and into a position where he won’t get hurt all the time. In Minnesota, he won’t catch. I believe that spot is reserved for someone else.

With the Twins, Doumit is expected to be their DH, play first from time to time, or if all else fails, play some right field. He is also expected to back up Mauer from time to time, but the Twins are hoping that won’t be the case too often.

I think the spot for him would be DH and batting fifth in the lineup. Doumit is a switch-hitter, so having him behind the two lefties in Mauer and Morneau won’t make a difference.

If the Twins can get 500 – 600 PA’s out of Doumit, they could have a guy who can hit 15 – 20 HR’s and have an OPS north of .800. Considering the Twins were paying Jason Kubel $5.2 million for that production, $3 million for Doumit is a pretty good deal.

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By The Baseball Index