Ervin 'Magic' Santana Joins The Twins' Pitching Staff

David McCoy

David McCoy joined the WCCO-TV sports team in March 2013 as a report...

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - Are the good old days back again?

Johan Santana will be pitching for the Twins this summer. Well, sort of.

'[In the] minor leagues, I was Johan Santana. Then, there was another Johan Santana. You know who that is,' said the Twins' newest free agent acquisition, starting pitcher Ervin Santana, with a laugh. 'They send me his baseball cards every time so I can sign it.'

So more than a decade ago, this Johan Santana changed his name to Ervin Santana, to avoid the confusion.

'I like Earvin Magic Johnson,' Santana said. 'Everybody called me 'Magic,' so that's why.'

Twins General Manager Terry Ryan has had his eye on him the whole time.

'We saw him and everybody got excited,' Ryan said. 'And of course his name at that time was Johan, and we already had one. So it kind of was ironic.'

He'll bolster the Twins starting rotation. And as a veteran player, from the Dominican Republic, he can mentor the Twins' large contingent of young Latin players.

'I'm not scared to talk to nobody,' Santana said. 'So if they need my help, I will help them.'

If you've followed Santana's career at all, you know he's been one of the most durable pitchers in baseball over the course of his 10-year career.

If you follow him on Twitter, he'll probably follow you. Santana follows more than 126,000 people. He says he likes the interaction with fans.

'Hey,' he said with a laugh, 'there's always time for everything.'

The Twins felt it was time to upgrade the pitching staff, and that's what they feel they've done with Santana.

'A great upgrade,' said new manager Paul Molitor. 'Increased the depth of the rotation [which] is a big thing that we've been trying to do, and obviously we landed a very solid guy that we're very excited to have.'

And Santana is excited to help. He says the team is going to have a 'very good pitching staff.'

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