The rumors about Houston Astros wanting to acquire Ken Giles is finally over. It was reported that Astros and Philadelphia Phillies are getting closer to have a done deal. And just recently, House of Houston reported that the deal was already done and "the Houston Astros have ended their search for a fireballer-closer by acquiring Ken Giles from the Philadelphia Phillies," said house of Houston.
According to the report, the Astros sent Vincent Velasquez, Brett Oberholtzer and Derek Fisher in exchange for Giles. This deal for the Phillies means an acquisition of relatively young players as they rebuild their team. On the other hand, this move of the Astros is to be interpreted as a strategy of the team to acquire a possible key player which could help them to contend in the coming seasons. House of Houston explained that;
"The beautiful thing about adding Giles is his age, cost and control. Giles is only 25, but does come with two years of pitching experience. He is also under control for another five seasons at little cost. Those three factors made Giles a high priority for the Astros, as a closer that can be a shutdown closer for the next several years, not just a one-year or few-year rental like other options."
Astros is hoping that with Giles in the team, a degree of improvement when it comes to the average fastball velocity would materialize. It can be remembered that last season they were only at 91.1 mph. Astros could likely use "Giles' average fastball velocity of 96.5 mph," which "was the the 11th-highest among big league relievers who pitched at least 50 innings last season," said espn.
With move of Astros sacrificing some nice pieces from their team, they are obviously betting that Ken Giles would continue to show his dominance as what he exhibited in the Phillies following the trade of Jonathan Papelbon. And with this new addition, Astros has considerably deepened their bullpen. Guess we would just have to see whether the decision of GM Jeff Luhnow in adding a supposedly hard-throwing arm at the back end would pay off.
