Astros Reportedly Acquire Closer Ken Giles from the Phillies

By Vincent Frank on Wednesday, December 9th 2015
Astros Reportedly Acquire Closer Ken Giles from the Phillies

The Philadelphia Phillies aren't going to have many opportunities to close out games this season, so it makes perfect sense for the team to move its young closer for a plethora of pieces. 

That apparently happened on Wednesday when the Phillies reportedly traded 25-year-old closer Ken Giles to the Houston Astros in exchange for a whopping four prospects. 

Giles has posted some absurd numbers in his first two seasons in the Majors. In 113 career appearances, the right-hander has posted a 9-4 record with a 1.56 ERA and 1.04 WHIP. He's also struck out 11.7 batters per nine innings while posting just 26 walks in 115.2 innnings pitched. 

This moves adds a ton of depth to the Astros bullpen. Last year's closer, Luke Gregerson, will find himself in a familiar set-up role after recording 31 saves last season. 

Though, yielding such a high bounty is a risky move for Houston. 

Pitchers Vincent Velasquez and Brett Oberholtzer as well as outfield prospect Derek Fisher head to Philadelphia with another yet to be named player. 

Velasquez, 23, was a second-round pick of the Astros back in 2010. He recorded a 1-1 record with a 4.37 ERA and 1.28 WHIP in 19 games (seven starts) last season. The hard-throwing righty also put up more than a strikeout per inning. 

Oberholtzer, more of your control type pitcher, has put up 42 career starts in three seasons. He projects to be a back of the rotation type for Philadelphia in 2015. 

The biggest piece of the puzzle acquired by Philadelphia in this deal probably comes in the form of Fisher, who was a first-round pick of the Astros back in 2014. 

He entered the 2015 campaign as the Astros ninth-ranked prospect, joining Velasquez (No. 4 overall) as top prospects to go to Philly in this deal. 

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