I feel relatively confident that you can squeeze 28 starts out of Pivetta (+12) and maybe a few more out of Crawford to (+5). 21 starts was a career high for Houck and he broke down. Same for Whitlock, whose innings totals the last three seasons have been very consistent: 73, 78, 72.Right now, they’ve lost 48 starts between Sale, Paxton, and Kluber. Let’s say we’d prefer to not do the opener thing at all, so that’s 16 more starts. So you are looking to replace 64 starts. You’d like to hope Giolito can take 28 of them.
So down to 36. Would be great to add another legit SP…but theoretically, could you get that many more from a combination of Pivetta (16 starts last year), Houck (21), Whitlock (10), and Crawford (23)?
Probably, but less than ideal, obviously.
Maybe it's all just been bad luck with Whitlock but I think there's an argument to be made that you may be fucking with his career with all this moving back and forth between the rotation and the bullpen. Perhaps just a defined role in the bullpen is what's best for his career and value to the team versus relying on him doubling his innings pitched to build your rotation? Remember the reason Bloom was even able to select Whitlock in the Rule 5 draft is because injuries set him back in the minors...