You may or may not have heard that the Dodgers are going to sign Roki Sasaki to a minor league contract. In order to do so, they needed to drain their international signing bonus pool, but from the looks of it, they needed a little boost in the end.
Enter the Phillies.
The Dodgers have traded Dylan Campbell to the Phillies in a trade that includes international bonus pool space, per source.
— Kiley McDaniel (@kileymcd) January 17, 2025
Kiley gave a brief breakdown of the prospect the team has coming back for that money.
Campbell is an OF that was the 136th overall pick in the 2023 draft from the University of Texas. He hit 10 homers and stole 42 bases last year in High-A.
— Kiley McDaniel (@kileymcd) January 17, 2025
Rather smart play by the front office to swoop in and grab Campbell to help their own system out. If you’re looking for more on what Campbell is and how he will play, here’s what Fangraphs said last year (they don’t have a Dodgers list yet).
The compact Campbell has a minimalistic set-up and swing, with basically no stride and a very short load. He’s a dangerous gap-to-gap hitter with this simple operation, which looks as though he’s using a two-strike approach the whole time, expertly guiding the bat head around the bottom of the zone. Campbell does have trouble with up-and-away fastballs at times, and right field is a tough profile when you don’t have a plus offensive tool. I’d really like to see if Campbell can once again mix an infield position into his defensive duties. If so, he’ll likely hit enough to be a versatile part-time weapon.
If Sasaki was destined for Los Angeles, as it always seemed he was, then they needed to renege on deals with their other prospects as well as grab money from wherever they could. The Phillies are one of the smart teams that are going to take advantage of that and grabbed a much needed hitting prospect that can help the barren landscape that is becoming their hitting development program.
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