Philadelphia Phillies Never Had Fair Chance to Sign Roki Sasaki

The ex-Philadelphia Phillies target wants to play in California, and the team can't do anything about that.

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

The Philadelphia Phillies finally got back on the board on Thursday night, signing outfielder Max Kepler.

With how quiet the Phillies' front office had been, the fan base will take anything at this point.

Kepler is a decent player, but to say that more doesn't have to be done would be dishonest.

Philadelphia simply needs to make more moves, and fortunately, there are many players on the market for them to do so.

At the top of that list should be Roki Sasaki, a right-hander out of Japan.

Due to his age and international rules, Sasaki can only sign for up to $7.5 million, making him the perfect target for the Phillies.

Unfortunately, Dave Dombrowski threw cold water on the possible dream signing for Philadelphia when he shared they haven't had a meeting with the phenom and don't expect to get one.

While it's not surprising to hear that, considering the Phillies have never signed an international free agent from Japan, it's still a tough pill to swallow.

And it poses the question: Did Dombrowski ever have a fair chance to sign the flame thrower?

It doesn't sound like it.

With Sasaki beginning to meet with teams, more information is starting to come out surrounding his sweepstakes.

According to Brian Murphy of MLB.com, executives around Major League Baseball view this as a two-man race between the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers. 

"With dollars not a determining factor, you can't really rule out any team for Sasaki, who has an electric repertoire of pitches. The Yankees have been granted a meeting with him. The Mets reportedly met with him on Thursday. But team executives across the league believe there are two favorites to land the right-hander: the Dodgers and the Padres."

Despite the interest Philadelphia had, there isn't much they can do if Sasaki doesn't view them as a suitor and wants to play on the West Coast.

That's been the unfortunate reality about some of the top Japanese players over the past few winters since Japan is closer to California than states on the East Coast.

Whether that's his deciding factor remains to be seen, but at this point in time, it looks like the Phillies will have to keep on waiting before they land a player from Japan.

It's an unfortunate time for Philadelphia, and to not even get a chance, it hurts a bit more.

However, there's still moves they can make, and those need to happen.