Griffey retires; Valencia promoted; Cuddyer headed to bereavement list

Ken Griffey Jr., announced his retirement right before batting practice today, with the Twins set to face the Mariners at Safeco Field.

Griffey, who has 630 career home runs, was batting .184 in limited duty.

"While I feel I am still able to make a contribution on the field, and nobody in the front office has asked me to retire ... I will never allow myself to become a distraction," Griffey said in a statement. "I feel that without enough occasional starts to be sharper coming off the bench, my continued presence as a player would be an unfair distraction to my teammates."

Meanwhile, in Twins news:

Michael Cuddyer's father-in-law, Jon Rente, passed away this week. Cuddyer will leave Thursday for the funeral in Virginia and rejoin the team on Tuesday in Minnesota. The Twins will place him on the bereavement list, allowing them to promote a player from the minors.

That player will be Danny Valencia, who has been playing third base at Class AAA Rochester. Valencia is batting .298 with no home runs and 24 RBI for the Red Wings.

Alexi Casilla will undergo arthroscopic surgery on his right elbow Friday and is expected to miss 4-8 weeks.

Well, the voters (media types covering the teams) have spoken, and David Ortiz was the American League's Player of the Month for May. Vladimir Guerrero was the runner up. Justin Morneau? No mention in the press release.

Here are their May numbers:

Ortiz: .363/.424/.788 with four doubles, 10 homers and 27 RBI.
Guerrero: .330/.339/.633 with three doubles, 10 homers and 31 RBI.
Morneau: .400/.496/.710 with 13 doubles, six homers and 19 RBI.

Boston's Jon Lester was named AL Pitcher of the Month. That seemed well-deserved, as he was 5-0 with a 1.84 ERA.

Anyway, back to the task at hand. The Twins will be facing Cliff Lee tonight, and they'll need Kevin Slowey to build off his last start against Texas. Slowey held the Rangers to one run on six hits in 6 2/3 innings.

TWINS (31-21)

1. Denard Span, CF
2. J.J. Hardy, SS
3. Joe Mauer, C
4. Justin Morneau, 1B
5. Michael Cuddyer, RF
6. Jason Kubel, DH
7. Delmon Young, LF
8. Matt Tolbert, 2B
9. Nick Punto, 3B

Starting pitcher: Kevin Slowey (6-3, 4.15 ERA)

MARINERS (20-31)

1. Ichiro Suzuki, CF
2. Chone Figgins, 2B
3. Franklin Gutierrez, CF
4. Mike Sweeney, DH
5. Milton Bradley, LF
6. Jose Lopez, 3B
7. Casey Kotchman, 1B
8. Rob Johnson, C
9. Josh Wilson, SS