Ken Giles

Welcome to the first of what hopefully will become a weekly feature on Mondays: a Phillies Monday Mailbag.  We asked the good people of Twitter what they would like to talk about, and these are the top questions we got in response from the Philliedelphia and 97 ...

According to multiple report, the Phillies have traded close Ken Giles to the Houston Astros in exchange for five pitchers; Mark Appel, Vince Velasquez, Thomas Eshelman, Harold Arauz and Brett Oberholtzer, infielder Jonathan Arauz also was sent to Houston.

It sounds as if that scribbled cocktail napkin at the Winter Meetings in Nashville could be in permanent ink.

ESPN's MLB writer Jerry Crasnick reports that the Astros recently discussed a possible Ken Giles trade with the Phillies. According to Crasnick, the Phillies have been getting a lot of "hits" on Giles and expects trade talks to become more prevalent in Nashville at the winter meetings...

With the Phillies seemingly not expected to compete for a pennant in 2016, a closer isn't a necessity. According to a report, the Phillies continue to monitor and "assess" a trade market for Ken Giles.

The baseball GM meetings are taking place this week, it's the first for new Phillies GM Matt Klentak, who is trying to rebuild the Phillies after back-to-back last place finishes.

After a series of traded the Phillies of 2017 might have a much different look then the team that you see out there each and every night. Gone are Cole Hamels, Ben Revere and Jonathan Papelbon and in their place, the Phillies are hoping for the next batch of players to help bring the Phillies back to the World Series...

It seems teams around baseball believe the Phillies were about ready to trade closer Jonathan Papelbon back in June, but someone above Ruben Amaro Jr. stepped in and and put any deal on hold per Jayson Stark of ESPN.com.

The Phillies have finalized their Opening Day roster for the 2015 regular season. The club made the following transactions today: Infielder Andres Blanco and outfielder Jeff Francoeur had their contracts selected; outfielder Jordan Danks was optioned to Lehigh Valley (AAA); right-handers Chad Billingsley and Jonathan Pettibone were placed on the 15-day disabled list and left-hander Mario Hollands

With opening day just four days away, the Phillies have returned to Philadelphia after spending the last month and a half in Clearwater.