Strib: Twins Looking at Rich Harden

As first reported by the Star-Tribune's LaVelle E. Neal III last night, the Twins have been in contact with Rich Harden's agent, and that things are "heating up pretty quickly."

Harden, of course, is the once-promising Athletics starter who has dealt with a crazy amount of injury problems (the Wikipedia section on his major league career reads more like a medical history), and didn't even pitch last season. Friend of the blog Aaron Gleeman notes at Hardball Talk that Harden hasn't had an ERA under 5.00 since 2009, and speculates that this would be a minor-league deal were he to strike an agreement with Terry Ryan and the Twins.

This seems similar to Minnesota's flier on Joel Zumaya last year, in which you take a small risk on an injury-prone, high-reward pitching arm. One hopes this isn't the final move the Twins make to shore up their rotation, but if it's another in a series of options for them to look at, I can't say it's a bad idea.