It was the outcome we all expected but not the outcome we all wanted. On Wednesday, the Los Angeles Dodgers unveiled Roki Sasaki, their most recent overseas victory. The latest Japanese phenom to cross the ocean agreed to a minor league contract with a $6.5 million bonus last week.

The Philadelphia Phillies were never seriously involved in what at first was a seemingly wide-open sweepstakes for the 23-year-old right-hander. With his contract restricted by the MLB international free agency rules, teams only had so much to offer based on their 2025 international bonus pool money.

“I spent the past month both embracing and reflecting on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to choose a place purely based on where I can grow as a player the most,” Sasaki said through team interpreter Will Ireton during his press conference on Wednesday, per MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell.

It obviously wasn’t Philadelphia.

Phillies never even had the chance to make a splash with Roki Sasaki

The Phillies submitted a package of information to Sasaki’s camp but never received an invitation for an in-person meeting. As Paul Casella or MLB.com reported, Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski threw in the towel before the December holidays.

“We have not been invited to talk to him at this point,” Dombrowski said, per Casella. “We sent in our original info, they know we would very much like to have a presentation, but we haven’t been invited to the table.”

Ouch.

The Phillies’ failed attempt to even have a chance to sign Sasaki is just the last example of the organization’s continuing challenge overseas. The Phillies have only ever had two Japanese players on the roster, Tadahito Iguchi and So Taguchi, and have never signed an impact player directly from Japan or Korea.

Now, the Phillies did announce their own Japanese signing, albeit to a minor league deal, shortly after the Sasaki news broke last week. Whether 31-year-old sidearmer Koyo Aoyagi makes it onto the roster out of spring training or makes any kind of impact this season remains to be seen. Nothing against Aoyagi, but he’s not Sasaki. He’s also not Yoshinobu Yamamoto. He’s certainly not Shohei Ohtani.

The Phillies didn’t get a sniff of Ohtani when he arrived in 2017, and they were passed over last winter by Yamamoto, despite making a massive offer of at least $300 million.

Phillies still trying to build an impactful foothold in Japan

It feels like the Phillies are a few steps behind the Dodgers of the world in gaining a foothold in the Japanese and Korean baseball markets. But it’s not due to a lack of effort. Amid the Yamamoto craze last offseason, much was made about the Phillies’ expanded efforts in Asia. It’s been a point of emphasis for Dombrowski since he joined the front office in 2021.

“We have now established more of a base to deal with clubs,” Dombrowski said of the improvement in his team’s Asian operations, per MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki. “But I don’t think we necessarily have to sign somebody to establish that more. Having the base, having the interaction to get the player at the right time will be important.”

Who will be the right player at the right time for the Phillies?

Another notable player is planning on coming to MLB next offseason, Munetaka Murakami. The 24-year-old superstar slugger says 2025 will be his final season in Japan, but the Phillies already have no shot at signing the two-time Central League MVP — he wants to play on the West Coast.

Perhaps that’s the problem. It’s not an organizational flaw that’s keeping Japanese and Korean players away from Philadelphia, but rather a geographical one. The City of Philadelphia has its own thing going as a sports hub, but you have to be there to truly appreciate it. It doesn’t have the same draw for outsiders as, say, the sunny climes of Southern California. And being on the East Coast means the Phillies are in competition with both New York teams.

Will Philadelphia ever become a destination for Japanese players?

The Phillies will keep trying, and perhaps signing Aoyagi is the first small step.

“There’s just so much talent over there,” Phillies general manager Sam Fuld said last March, per Zolecki. “As an organization, we want to put our best foot forward and put ourselves in a spot to land some of that premium talent that exists there.”

Despite the franchise being over 140 years old, the Phillies are the new kids on the block, relatively speaking, as far as being a perennial top contender. The team wandered in the non-competitive wilderness for a decade after their five consecutive NL East titles from 2007 to 2011.

Dombrowski and managing partner John Middleton have a vision for a sustainable dynasty in Philadelphia, and signing a young star like Sasaki would have helped the cause. It might take more than a few years of being a competitive team to become a destination for foreign stars.

Maybe it will be enough, one day.