I'm with you on Whitlock in the rotation. Think the ship has sailed with Houck, which would be too bad, but we'll see.
I'm not against reasonable multi-year deals for Wacha and Eovaldi, but unless they're extended (which I think would've happened by now), the decision to offer a QO comes first. Broadly speaking though, I think a 1/$19 million contract is probably preferable to some front offices than something like 2/$28 million or 3/$36 million.
Why do you think WAR overstates his defensive value?
It makes sense that his defense would be more valuable next year, right? The banned shift should increase the number of defensive plays at second base, which has really dwindled in the last 10 years. There were 13,807 assists from second base in 2011; last year, there were only 11,486. That's a back-of-the-napkin assessment, but that means today's second basemen have 17 percent fewer plays than second basemen did a decade ago. I don't think that'll be restored overnight, but the domino effect of the banned shift should result in fewer plate appearances where batters try explicitly to avoid the shift, like fly balls from left-handed batters, whiffs, swings for the fences, opposite field strokes and so on. I'd argue that a good, athletic defensive second baseman could even be more valuable than he was ten years ago, because league wide exit velocities are higher now (requiring quicker reaction time) and there's a DH in the National League, which increases the balls in play in that circuit and increases team demand for hitters/position players.
Edit: Put another way, that extrapolation would be consistent with many of Dustin Pedroia's years (he had two-three years where he was truly elite; otherwise was a +10ish DRS guy). As someone who watched both of them, I do not think that is an accurate projection for Story (or even assessment of his play this year)
I think Trevor Story is an all-star caliber player who battled bad injury luck and a number of other factors (late spring, illness, new baby) in a tough first year. I think he stays at second base and he'll be fine.