Twins bring back Pavano

Published 8:54 am Thursday, January 20, 2011

MINNEAPOLIS  — The mustache isn’t going anywhere.

Carl Pavano and the Twins agreed on a $16.5 million, two-year contract Wednesday night, ensuring the popular right-hander who made the ‘stache cool again in Minnesota will be back to provide stability to the team’s rotation.

Pavano had several offers on the table and surprisingly considered a return to the New York Yankees before ultimately deciding to stay with the club that helped the 35-year-old have a career resurgence in 2010.

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“I’m excited,” Pavano said on a conference call. “When you go through free agency, there’s a lot of big decisions that you have. Obviously I couldn’t walk away from the rapport I have with my teammates, the staff and the organization.”

Pavano went 17-11 with a 3.75 ERA and seven complete games last season to help the Twins win the AL Central title. More impressive for him, he pitched 221 innings, the second-highest total in what had been an injury-plagued career.

“He was in demand,” Twins general manager Bill Smith said. “I know he had a lot of teams that called him. The best thing we both had going for us is he kept saying that he wanted to come back to the Twins and we kept saying that he was the one guy we really wanted to get.”

Pavano came to Minnesota in a 2009 trade with Cleveland and has been reinvigorated after four tough seasons with the Yankees. Injuries caused him to miss the entire 2006 season and much of three others, and he made only 26 starts for New York.