--The Twins have filed a lawsuit against the Metrodome authority, seeking a ruling from a judge that the club is under no long-term obligation to play there. A 1998 agreement between the team and the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission was used as the basis for a successful legal block of baseball's attempt to include the Twins in its contraction effort in 2001-02. The Twins say that agreement expired in 2003. Skeptics suggest the Twins' lawsuit is a veiled attempt to scare local officials into believing the Twins are a candidate to relocate, as the Montreal Expos did last year.

--As expected, one of the Twins' first offseason moves was to decline the $8.5 million option on RHP Joe Mays' contract, buying it out for $500,000 and making him a free agent.

--The Twins also released DH/C Matt LeCroy, who would have been arbitration-eligible, but might be interested in re-signing him based on his market value this winter.

--Stan Cliburn, who spent the past five seasons managing the Twins' Double-A affiliate in New Britain, Conn., was promoted to manager of Triple-A Rochester, replacing longtime manager Phil Roof, who left the team this season to tend to his ailing wife.

--Former Twins farmhand Jeff Smith, a catcher who reached Triple-A, was named 2006 manager of Class A Beloit (Wis.), less than a year after retiring as a player.

--With Hurricane Wilma bearing down on the Twins' winter and spring home in Fort Myers, Fla., the Twins canceled their annual organizational meetings there and cut short by two days their instructional league programs. Instead, staff and players were evacuated.

BY THE NUMBERS
2 million -- Attendance threshold passed by the Twins for the first time since 1993.

QUOTE TO NOTE
"I want to be a Minnesota Twin. I was born a Minnesota Twin. ... But pinstripes are not so bad. Dodgers are not so bad. Angels are not so bad. I think I'll stay a Twin for a while, but if they want to get rid of me, I would happily take the trade." -- CF Torii Hunter, under contract for one more year (plus a 2007 club option), on the potential of being traded this winter, while a guest on Fox Sports Net's "Best Damn Sports Show Period."

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