The Philadelphia Phillies have been attempting to sign free agents who have been posted from the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) in Japan for a few years. They pursued but missed out on both Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shota Imanaga. Philadelphia signed Koyo Aoyagi to a minor league contract last winter but the right-hander struggled in their system before being released in July.
However Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski and managing partner John Middleton will continue to try to sign players from Japan as an influx of talent transitions their careers from the NPB to MLB.