One of the most useless pieces for a last-place team is a dominant closer. The Phillies capitalized on that this week by dealing their dominant 25 year-old closer Ken Giles to the Astros for a package of prospects which included former number one overall draft pick Mark Appel.
In two seasons in Philadelphia, Giles has compiled 16 saves with a 1.56 ERA. His ERA indicators are high on him as well, with his FIP coming in at 1.82 and xFIP coming in at 2.65 over 115.2 innings pitched. He strikes out a ton of batters, posting an 11.75 K/9 rate so far. Being just two years into his career, he still has five years of team control left.
In exchange, the Phillies got a slew of talented prospects. The headliner is right-hander Mark Appel, who is rated the number two prospect in the Astros’ system according to MLB.com. He was drafted number one overall out of Stanford in 2013 after an excellent college career. However, he has struggled at almost every level of the minor leagues, owning a career 5.12 ERA. Nonetheless, he is still considered a promising prospect.
The Phillies will get another consensus top 100 prospect in Vincent Velasquez, a 23 year-old right-hander who made his debut with the Astros this year. Over 19 appearances with the big league club this season, he posted a 4.37 ERA, but also struck out 9.4 batters per nine innings.
Thomas Eshelman, another righty and the Astros’ second round pick this year, will be heading to Philadelphia. He was a top 15 prospect in Houston’s system.
Brett Oberholtzer, a 26 year-old left-handed starter will be headed to the Phillies as well, and will presumably join their rotation next year. He has made 42 total starts with the Astros the past three years, and owns a 3.94 career ERA. He doesn’t strike out a ton of batters (5.9 K/9), but he has a very low walk rate (2.1 BB/9).
The last piece heading to the Phillies is Harold Arauz, a 20 year-old righty. Arauz has split time between the bullpen and a starting role and struggled to the tune of a 5.75 ERA in 2015.
Giles is the main player heading to Houston, but the Phillies are also sending 17 year-old shortstop and second baseman Jonathan Arauz. He slashed .254/.309/.370 wit two homers, two triples, and ten doubles in 44 games with the Phillies’ Gulf Coast League affiliate.
Now under new management, the Phillies are clearly in all-out rebuilding mode. They won’t be needing a dominant closer like Giles for a few more years, so perhaps it makes sense to use him to re-tool an ailing minor league system. Meanwhile, the Astros are building a very dangerous bullpen. After combining for a sixth-in-baseball 3.27 ERA this past year, their already top-notch bullpen should be even better in 2016.
