The Astros and the Phillies on Saturday finally completed a deal to send closer Ken Giles to Houston in a seven-player deal that now has pitcher Mark Appel, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2013 draft, going to Philadelphia.
In exchange for Giles, 25, and minor league shortstop Jonathan Arauz, the Astros sent Appel and right-handed pitchers Harold Arauz, Thomas Eshelman, Vincent Velasquez and left-hander Brett Oberholtzer to the Phillies.
The teams had to reconfigure the swap agreed to on Wednesday at the winter meetings after the Phillies had an issue over the physical exam of outfielder Derek Fisher, www.mlb.com reported.
“Our primary objective this off-season has been to add quality arms to our bullpen,” Houston general manager Jeff Luhnow said in a statement.
“Ken Giles is a premium pitcher who will play an important role by getting critical outs for the Astros for years to come. Arauz is an exciting young shortstop with tools. He adds to our depth of infield position player prospects,” Luhnow added.
Giles joins a young Houston team that reversed years of losing by claiming a wild-card playoff berth last season.
The hard-throwing right-hander posted a 1.80 ERA and 15 saves in 17 opportunities, while striking out 87 batters in 70 innings.
Jonathan Arauz, 17, this year’s youngest player in the Gulf Coast League in his first professional season, committed just three errors in 44 combined games at shortstop and second base.
The Phillies, who slumped to a 63-99 record to land in the NL East cellar, added to their starting pitching depth.
Appel, 24, began this year’s season with Double-A Corpus Christi, where he was 5-1 in 13 starts with a 4.26 ERA. He then was promoted to Triple-A Fresno, where he went 5-2 in 12 starts with a 4.48 ERA.
Oberholtzer, 26, went 2-2 with a 4.46 ERA in eight starts for the Astros this year, and in a dozen starts for Triple-A Fresno he was 7-4 with a 3.86 ERA.
Velasquez, 23, went 1-1 with a 4.37 ERA, making seven starts for Houston last season. In 72 career minor league appearances he is 26-14 with a 3.28 ERA.
Harold Arauz, 20, is 11-8 in 53 career minor league appearances (34 starts) with a 3.54 ERA, and Eshelman, 21, was a second-round pick in this year’s draft.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
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Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB