Can you show your work here on the bolded? First of all,
all starters get worse as they go through a lineup. That's just being a starting pitcher.
Here's Houck's splits, starter to reliever:
View attachment 68312
A 4.00 ERA is pretty good. Keep in mind
that's just the beginning of his career. Most pitchers take some time to acclimate.
Whitlock has struggled more as a starter, but he's only had 90 innings.
View attachment 68313
Secondly, Whitlock and Houck both have had good-to-excellent FIPS as starters in their career. They had to suffer through the days of Hernandez at short and Valdez at second-base, which was brutal on them, IIRC.
Whitlock's Starter stats:
View attachment 68314
Houck's starter stats:
View attachment 68315
Now, there's not room for all three of them already, so as much as I'd like to add another starter, I'm not sure exactly how there's room for one.
The team has been on a roll without them using bullpen games, which Murphy and Pivetta have been crushing.
If you can acquire a starting pitcher, of course, go and get one, but at some point you're out of room, and the price is going to be exorbitant, I suspect, so I'm not sure we're going to do it.