Padres, White Sox, Brewers, Indians Not In On NPB Free Agents

Yahoo Japan Sports has a piece on four teams' lack of interest in Japanese free agents. Warning, translations of translations coming up:

• San Diego's Kevin Towers: "We don't have much room in our budget this offseason. We're not going to be active in acquiring players".
• Chicago's Kenny Williams: "We really like Uehara, Kawakami, Takahashi, and Aikawa," before adding, "we don't have the budget to get involved in the Japanese market".
• Cleveland's Mark Shapiro: "We know Uehara, Kawakami and Takahashi but we're not making it a priority to acquire them. This offseason we have budget limitations and looking to one or two players; an infielder and an experienced closer".
• Milwaukee's Doug Melvin: "We won't acquire a Japanese free agent".

It's notable that all of these GMs with the exception of Melvin have signed a Japanese free agent in the past. I'm a little surprised by Williams as I saw the White Sox as a dark horse candidate for Kawakami.