Twins’ Santana reinstated from suspension, will start today

The surprising Minnesota Twins, who are in second place in the American League Central, have added a front-line starter for the second half of the season.

Right-hander Ervin Santana has been reinstated after an 80-game drug suspension and is scheduled to start Sunday against the Kansas City Royals.

“It’s a little different than making a trade, I think,” Twins manager Paul Molitor said Saturday. “Obviously, you’re adding a good player to a club that you didn’t have previous. We all knew this one was coming. It was just a matter of riding out the storm.

“The impact might be similar, but the mental part is different. It’s not all of a sudden, hey, we traded for this guy. You just know you’re going to have this guy available to you at some point.”

Santana signed a $55 million, four-year contract with the Twins in December after going 14-10 with a 3.95 ERA last season for Atlanta. The 32-year-old tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs and sat out the first 80 games of this season.

He went 3-1 with a 1.89 ERA in spring training and was penciled in to be the Twins’ No. 2 starter when MLB announced the suspension on April 3, after he tested positive for the performing enhancing substance Stanovlol.

“It was tough you know like any other bad news peo- ple get,” Santana said. “Everything has been very good especially with the way we’ve been playing right now. We just have to keep it up and keep going.”

He said he got to spend more productive time with his family during the time off. How did Santana explain his suspension to his children?

“Like every other parent would say, ‘Don’t do bad things’ and that’s it,” Santana said.

Does Santana feel like he did a bad thing?

“What do you think?” he replied. “Let’s leave it right there. It’s in the past and I’m just moving forward. And I’m happy to be back.”