Philadelphia Phillies Listed as Top Contender for Japanese Phenom Roki Sasaki

The Philadelphia Phillies have been named a top contender for Japanese phenom Roki Sasaki.

Mar 20, 2023; Miami, Florida, USA; Japan starting pitcher Roki Sasaki (14) delivers a pitch during the first inning against Mexico at LoanDepot Park. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images / Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

The Philadelphia Phillies entered the 2024 season with one of the best starting rotations in baseball, with Zack Wheeler as the ace, and Cristopher Sanchez as the fourth starter.

They had an issue finding a capable fifth starter, with veteran Taijuan Walker struggling to be even a mediocre option, and it drug the staff ERA down immensely, though they still finished the year with a combined 3.81 ERA among starters, good enough for eighth in Major League Baseball.

While the initial plan was to have prospect Andrew Painter ready to make an impact on the Major League roster after missing all of 2023 and 2024 with Tommy John surgery, a new opportunity has presented itself to the Phillies in the form of an international free agent, Roki Sasaki.

On Saturday, the Chiba Lotte Marines announced that they would be posting the 23-year-old pitching phenom, allowing him to sign with a club in MLB and face the best competition available.

This is a huge development for Philadelphia, who made an effort to try and bring Yoshinobu Yamamoto into the organization through international free agency last year, before ultimately falling short to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

From a financial standpoint, things will be much simpler this time around with Sasaki being only 23, as teams will only be able to offer the phenom a minor league contract, though they can extend him once the first year of his time in MLB has completed.

This opens the list of potential suitors to anyone that calls themselves a MLB team, but in a recent report from Will Sammon of The Athletic, not every team will make sense for the phenom, though the Phillies are among the ones that do, especially after their pursuit of Yamamoto.

"The Philadelphia Phillies, according to a league source, remain another team worth watching in the sweepstakes," writes Sammon, "last winter, team president Dave Dombrowski aggressively pursued Yamamoto in free agency, a signal of the franchise’s concerted efforts to build up a presence in the Pacific Rim."

This offseason was already slated to be full of excitement and fireworks with the likes of Juan Soto and Corbin Burnes available in free agency.

Now, with Sasaki being posted, the impending fun of free agency continues to grow as does the hopes of each team as they approach the new campaign in search of a World Series Championship.

For Philadelphia, should they acquire Sasaki, their already stacked roster will be that much better, and it will be that much harder for an opposing team to knock them out of the playoffs in the first round.