Philadelphia Phillies Played Pivotal Role in Helping Dodgers Land Roki Sasaki

The Philadelphia Phillies played a key role in the Los Angeles Dodgers signing Roki Sasaki on Friday night.

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 pulled off a trade on Friday afternoon that could have played a large role in the Los Angeles Dodgers acquiring the best international player in baseball.

Kiley McDaniel of ESPN broke the news on Friday night that the Phillies completed a trade with the Dodgers to acquire outfield prospect Dylan Campbell.

The more consequential part of the trade, however, may have been Philadelphia sending over International bonus pool space, which will obviously be used to sign Japanese phenom Roki Sasaki.

Sasaki announced the baseball world-shaking news on Friday night as well, with the news of the trade following shortly after. With the Phillies barely competing to sign the young star for themselves, they now played a key role in bringing him over to Los Angeles.

Seeing as though the 23-year-old is still considered an amateur, the Dodgers would be resigned to just using the international bonus space they had left over to offer.

With trades, Los Angeles would be able to get their offer up to an $8.24 million bonus per R.J. Anderson of CBS Sports.

As for the Philadelphia side of this, obviously the team they have to get through to reach the World Series just got better. They did, however, also receive an intriguing young player in a position of need.

Campbell is a 22-year-old outfield prospect that was drafted in the fourth round of the 2023 MLB draft. He posted a .251/.331/.372 slash line with 10 home runs and 42 stolen bases at the High-A level this season.