Former Phillies reliever Ken Giles reportedly attempting MLB comeback, to throw bullpen Friday

Ken Giles began his career with the Phillies. (Gavin Baker/Icon Sportswire)

100 Miles Giles is back.

OK, maybe he’s not 100 Miles Giles anymore — and maybe the nickname was always a bit of a stretch — but teams can find out for themselves on Friday. According to multiple reports, the first of which came from Jon Heyman of The New York Post, the former Phillies reliever will throw a bullpen for any interested clubs on Friday in Phoenix, Ariz.

Giles debuted with the Phillies in 2014, three years after being the club’s seventh-round draft pick, and spent two seasons in Philadelphia. He racked up 16 saves (15 of which came after Jonathan Papelbon’s unceremonious departure in 2015) and posted a stout 1.56 ERA in the back of the Phillies’ bullpen.

Those two seasons made Giles the perfect trade chip: one of the better relievers in the game, but on a team whose 99-loss season had just earned it the No. 1 pick in the following year’s draft and which was nowhere near contention. Accordingly, the Phillies shipped Giles and shortstop prospect Jonathan Arauz to the Houston Astros in a trade for centerpiece Vince Velasquez, plus Brett Oberholtzer, Tom Eshelman, Mark Appel and Harold Arauz. Needless to say, it didn’t move the needle.

Giles spent two-and-a-half years in Houston, then two-and-a-half with the Blue Jays following a 2018 deadline-time deal to Toronto. He missed the majority of the 2020 season and all of 2021 after undergoing Tommy John Surgery, then made five appearances with the Seattle Mariners in 2022. He threw 18 Triple-A innings with the Oklahoma City Baseball Club (Dodgers) last season, allowing 19 runs for an unsightly 9.50 ERA.

He’s thrown just 4 1/3 MLB innings in the last three seasons — and just eight in the last four — but per The Athletic‘s Ken Rosenthal, Giles’ agent says the 33-year-old is healthy and “ready to resume his major-league career.”

Whether the Phillies are one of the interested teams that will be on hand in Phoenix isn’t clear. What is clear: With the Phillies not paying top dollar for Josh Hader or Robert Stephenson but in need of some bullpen help, they’re likely to be active on the fringes of the reliever market. Giles, at the very least, falls into that category — someone who would start on the outside but could vie for a roster spot and, if anywhere near his early form, provides plenty of value. And while he doesn’t top the list of even former Phillies relievers the team could look to for said bullpen help

, due diligence on Giles can’t hurt.

At the very least, the MLB comeback of someone who was once so electric that no one in Philadelphia wanted to part with him — a rare dynamic for a reliever on a bottom-feeder — is a story worth tracking.