Jim Souhan: Twins are building a contender — for 2010

This is the year to expect big things from the Twins.

This is the year Justin Morneau, Joe Mauer, Michael Cuddyer, Delmon Young and Francisco Liriano will all be under contract. This is the year you can expect to see the Twins' squadron of young pitchers and center fielder Carlos Gomez grow up and contend.

"This" year is not 2008. It's 2010, the realistic target season for the Twins to take a run at another division title.

In 2010, the Twins will enter their new stadium. They should be willing to expand their payroll. Most of their best young pitchers will have three or four years of big-league experience. Mauer, Morneau, Cuddyer and Young should have sorted themselves into the middle of a dynamic lineup.

Raw youngsters such as Alexi Casilla and Gomez might have turned into star-quality everyday players. And the teams currently ruling the AL Central -- Detroit and Cleveland -- might have come back to earth, because of the Tigers' aging position players and Cleveland's imminent payroll problems.

In fact, Santana's $137.5 million deal with the Mets likely means that Indians ace C.C. Sabathia, the best starting pitcher in the division, will leave via free agency this fall, damaging a persistent contender.

The Twins aren't conceding that 2008 is a rebuilding season.

As Cuddyer said last weekend: "We want to stop talking about the players who aren't with us and start talking about the players who are with us. We have a former MVP, a former batting champ and a great bullpen. We can contend."

That's what you want to hear from pro athletes. It's also probably not true.

Miracles like 2006 -- when the Twins received career years from almost everyone on the roster and won a loaded division while Detroit and Chicago collapsed -- happen. But not often. Otherwise they wouldn't be called miracles.

Usually, the best-built and best-funded teams win, and the Twins remain, like their stadium, under construction.

Their most promising deal of the winter -- Matt Garza for Young -- brought in a remarkably talented outfielder who will need to learn better plate discipline while on the job. Their biggest contract signings of the winter didn't make them immediately better -- they merely locked up Morneau and Cuddyer.

The Tigers might have the best lineup in baseball. The Indians, with Sabathia and Fausto Carmona, might have the best rotation in the division. The White Sox are just crazy enough to be dangerous in any given year, and one of these years the Kansas City Royals will shake off the rusted scaffolding and actually win some games.

Last season, the Twins finished far closer to last than first, and that could easily be the case again this year. The opening-week rotation might look something like this -- Scott Baker, Boof Bonser, Glen Perkins, Kevin Slowey and Kevin Mulvey.

No ace. Not much experience. Add Liriano and a few years of seasoning and that group might be good enough to win, but 2008 may be a season of learning on the job.

For the rotation, the lineup and the rookie general manager.