A's bid on Iwakuma

[A.E]

A’s bid for Hisashi Iwakuma’s negotiating rights believed to be “in the $15 million range”

Various sources confirm that Oakland has secured exclusive negotiating rights with Japanese right-hander Hisashi Iwakuma and Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports that “the A’s winning bid was in the $15 million range.”

Oakland will pay that “posting fee” to Iwakuma’s team in Japan only if the two sides are able to agree on a contract and there’s a 30-day deadline for negotiations. Iwakuma does not get any of the posting fee, so he’s on his own to work out a separate deal.

Slusser speculates that signing Iwakuma would motivate the A’s to shop their various young starting pitchers, which means Vin Mazzaro, Gio Gonzalez, and Dallas Braden may soon be available “for a big bat.” -HBT

Looks like the A's are ready to make a run. Iwakuma would be a nice add for Oakland, he's a former flame thrower that relies on breaking his splitter and 2-seam. Has posted consistent strikeout numbers each season but he's more of a groundball pitcher. I'd definitely compare him to Chien-Ming Wang. Iwakuma was actually tabbed as Japan's ace (over Darvish) in the 2009 WBC.

 

[snipezo]

Don't know much about him but signing Japanese pitcher is always a high risk high reward type of signing but signing him could make a the A's rotation even better.