Phillies made their life much harder by helping Dodgers land Roki Sasaki

The Philadelphia Phillies were expected to make a run to the World Series last year, but saw their season come to an end at the hands of the New York Mets in the NLDS. This offseason, the PHillies haven't done much to improve the roster, while watching other teams improve, particularly the Los Angeles Dodgers.

While multiple players have been flaoted as potential trade options, nothing has come to fruition. But on Friday, the Phillies made a move that unintentionaly made their path to the World Series that much more difficult.

According to ESPN's Kiley McDaniel, the Phillies acquired outfielder Dylan Campbell from the Dodgers in exchange for international bonus pool money. ESPN senior MLB insider Jeff Passan followed up, saying this trade helped the Dodgers land Japanese ace Roki Sasaki on a minor-league deal, which includes a $6.5 million signing bonus.

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Phillies trade helps Dodgers land Roki Sasaki

The Phillies helped, perhaps, their biggest threat in the National League get better for years to come.

Given that Sasaki is considered an amateur player, he could only sign a minor-league contract with a team, and the amount was limited to how much international bonus pool space they had.

The Dodgers' main competition for Sasaki was the Toronto Blue Jays, who earlier in the day picked up $2 million in international bonus pool space from the Cleveland Guardians. To do so, they had to take on the contract of Myles Straw, who is owed $13.8 million over the next two seasons (club options in 2027 and 2028). Once that trade was announced, it seemed like the Blue Jays might have had a deal with Sasaki, especially with the Dodgers only having over $5 million in international bonus pool space. Yet, the Dodgers still won out with a little extra help from the Phillies.

The Phillies do get some minor-league outfield depth in Campbell, a 2023 draft pick by the Dodgers. Last season playing High-A baseball, Campbell recorded a .251 batting average, a .331 on-base percentage, a .372 slugging percentage, 10 home runs, 53 RBI, 64 runs, and 109 hits in 435 at-bats (115 games).

The Phillies are running it back with most of last season's roster, with some new faces like outfielder Max Kepler and starting pitcher Jesus Luzardo. We'll see if those moves are enough to help the Phillies make a return back to the Fall Classic for the first time since 2022, or if it will be the Dodgers and their stacked roster making another run.