Phillies Officially Out of Roki Sasaki Sweepstakes With Finalists Revealed

The Philadelphia Phillies officially won't be landing Roki Sasaki after the finalists were revealed.

Mar 20, 2023; Miami, Florida, USA; Japan starting pitcher Roki Sasaki (14) celebrates with teammates after the first inning against Mexico at LoanDepot Park | Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

The Philadelphia Phillies went into this offseason with expectations surrounding them that there would be major changes made following the embarrassing elimination against the New York Mets in the National League Division Series.

However, that has not come to fruition.

While the team was shopping Alec Bohm which would have opened up the possibility of the front office making a marquee move, it seems more and more likely he will be on the Opening Day roster based on their reported high asking price that is preventing something from getting done.

Sticking with the theme of an underwhelming winter in comparison to what has previously taken place, the Phillies also got some bad news when they weren't one of the teams to get a meeting with Japanese phenom Roki Sasaki.

Dave Dombrowski stated he didn't believe they would get one, but when it was reported that a "mystery team" got a late meeting with the future star, there was some hope Philadelphia was able to get their way into the mix.

But, that doesn't seem to be the case.

According to Jeff Passan of ESPN, there are now three finalists in the Sasaki sweepstakes after the 23-year-old and his camp began informing teams they are no longer in the mix.

The finalists for Japanese star right-hander Roki Sasaki are the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres and Toronto Blue Jays, sources tell ESPN. Sasaki will decide on his team by the closing of his posting window Jan. 23.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) January 13, 2025

The fact the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres are finalists won't surprise anyone based on their interest in Sasaki from the beginning and the Japanese connections both organizations have, but the Toronto Blue Jays being in the mix this late is certainly a surprise.

No matter who he ends up with, this is another example of the Phillies drastically being behind when it comes to their footprint in Asia.

Philadelphia has yet to sign a player coming from Japan, and even though it felt like they were making some headway on that front by being so close to landing Yoshinobu Yamamoto last offseason, the fact Sasaki didn't even meet with them is a tough pill to swallow.

So, the Phillies will have to go back to the drawing board when it comes to their international efforts overseas and figure out a way to land the next Sasaki, Yamamoto or Shohei Ohtani.