This story was excerpted from Do-Hyoung Park’s Twins Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

It’s not often that the Twins’ situation presents even a feasible match for the biggest names on the market, but as the pursuit of young Japanese ace Roki Sasaki captures the attention of the baseball world this offseason, it at least doesn’t appear a given that teams like the Twins should be written off immediately in favor of the deep-pocketed, coastal powers.

Due to the nature of the circumstances surrounding the 23-year-old Sasaki, who was formally posted by the Chiba Lotte Marines of NPB on Monday, this will be less of a bidding war and more of a recruitment -- and the Twins (and everyone else in the league) are, needless to say, interested.

“We have interest. If you're in one of the rooms in this building and they don't say that, that would be shocking to me,” Twins president of baseball and business operations Derek Falvey said with a laugh. “Obviously, we just want to understand what he's looking for and his next step in his journey.”

For once, the Twins don’t need starting pitching, as they enter the offseason with a group of Pablo López, Joe Ryan, Bailey Ober, Chris Paddack, Simeon Woods Richardson, David Festa, Zebby Matthews and a host of young depth pitchers behind them.

But Sasaki -- the fireballing youngster with a 2.02 career ERA in Japan and easily hits triple digits -- is the kind of talent for which you’ll move things around to make it work. And far from Sasaki seeking the spotlight of a big market, his agent indicated the opposite could actually be the case -- perhaps creating a unique opportunity for teams like the Twins.

“I mean, I think that there's an argument to be made that a smaller mid-market team might be more beneficial for him as a soft landing coming from Japan, given what he's been through, and not having an enjoyable experience with the media,” agent Joel Wolfe said at the Winter Meetings.

“It might be -- I'm not saying it will be -- but I don't know how he's going to view it. It might be beneficial for him to be in a smaller market. But I really don't know how he looks at it yet, because I haven't had a chance to really sit down and discuss it with him in great detail.”

The Twins have very positive recent history with Kenta Maeda, who enjoyed one of the finest seasons of his career in Minnesota in his 2020 Cy Young runner-up campaign, and considerably less positive not-so-recent history with Tsuyoshi Nishioka, who struggled mightily from 2011-12 before returning to Japan.

And because Sasaki requested to be posted before reaching age 25 and has fewer than six seasons of NPB experience, his financials will be subject to international bonus pool restrictions -- and the Twins are among a group of eight teams in the highest initial bonus pool class ($7,555,500) for the 2025 period.

That part is also tricky because teams often plan out their international bonus money years in advance due to the nature of such pursuits -- but it’s also why, for example, Shohei Ohtani arrived in 2017 simply by receiving a $2.3 million bonus from the Angels.

“If it was purely and simply a financial decision, there's different timelines he could have been on or different decisions he could have made, and the team could have made, in terms of that process,” Falvey said. “I think that he's just looking for the right fit for the long-term to set up his Major League career for success.”

How things actually shake out is yet to be determined -- but the Twins (and 29 other teams) can seemingly dream big for now.

“That's a conversation that'll be ongoing here in the next few weeks: What's the best way to communicate your organization and what you value and what your culture is, and why you think you're the best fit for him,” Falvey said.