Twins Fail To Land Japanese Pitcher

According to the great Joe Christensen of the Star Tribune, the Twins attempted to bid for Japanese starting pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma - but were outbid by the Athletics.

The Twins made a bid to sign Japanese starting pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma, General Manager Bill Smith said today, but according to FoxSports.com, the winning bid went to Oakland.

According to an ESPN.com ranking mentioned in a MLB Trade Rumors post linked to from Christensen's story, Iwakuma was the seventh-best starter available on the market this year. Oakland will still need to agree to contract terms with the pitcher in order to sign him.

The Twins already have five starters for next year - Francisco Liriano, Kevin Slowey, Scott Baker, Brian Duensing, and Nick Blackburn - so this brings up a few questions:

1. Which of the starters are the Twins looking to dump?
   
2. Do the Twins have more money to spend next year than we assumed? They are, after all, attempting to buy free agents from overseas.
   
3. If they do, is there still a chance they'll offer arbitration to Carl Pavano, even though if he accepted, it could cost the team north of $10 million?

It's shaping up to be an interesting off-season - and I'm starting to wonder if everything we assumed is wrong.