A’s Unable To Reach Agreement With Hisashi Iwakuma

A few weeks ago, talks between the Oakland A’s and Japanese pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma broke off. And Monday night, up against the signing deadline, Mychael Urban reports that the deal is officially dead.

The A’s had a 30-day window during which they had to reach a contract agreement with the 29-year-old would-be import. That 30-day window expired Monday night, with no resolution. The A’s and Iwakuma’s agent haven’t even been in significant conversation for a long time ever since the extent of their differences of opinion became clear. The A’s were modeling their contract offers after the low one signed by Colby Lewis, while Iwakuma and his agent were modeling their contract proposals after the higher ones signed by Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hiroki Kuroda.

When the Oakland A’s won the rights to Japanese pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma, it was seen as an aggressive move by Billy Beane’s front office, and an indication that the team was gearing up to make a run in 2011. But now things have taken an unexpected turn, as contract talks between the A’s and Iwakuma have broken off, and Iwakuma appears set to return to his Japanese team for the 2011 season.

After winning Iwakuma’s rights, the A’s reportedly offered low contracts, using Colby Lewis and Kei Igawa as comparisons. Iwakuma and his agent responded by pointing to pricier players like Hiroki Kuroda and Daisuke Matsuzaka, and talks didn’t advance from there. The A’s didn’t budge, and negotiations didn’t proceed.

Ken Rosenthal first named the A’s as a possibility late last week, and on Sunday, Don Nomura - Iwakuma’s agent - tweeted a message saying the A’s had won. This has since been confirmed by MLB, according to Jon Morosi.

Rakuten - Iwakuma’s old team - has until Thursday to decide whether or not it will accept Oakland’s bid. The probability seems high that it will, and if they do, the A’s will then have a 30-day window in which they must negotiate a contract with the pitcher. Should Rakuten reject the bid, or should the A’s and Iwakuma fail to reach an agreement, Iwakuma would return to his old team, and the A’s would get their posting fee back.

With the World Series wrapping up Monday night, the offseason has officially begun as of Tuesday. The offseason is a time to think about free agency and potential trades, but it’s also a time to think about which Japanese players might become available as imports. And Tuesday we heard that a pretty big name is looking to make the move overseas:

Iwakuma is a 29 year old righty starting pitcher who is a ten-year veteran in Japan. Last season he posted a 2.82 ERA over 201 innings while striking out 153, and the season before that his ERA was 3.25, with 121 strikeouts in 169 innings.