It's hard to take this entirely seriously.If, like myself, one assumed that we’d get next to nothing from Sale and Paxton this season, then on paper that rotation looks awful. We actually got more out of Sale and Paxton than I expected, and they still weren’t good enough.
First off, the Sox didn't assume they wouldn't get anything out of Sale and Paxton, and they were correct.
Bello is your next pitcher up, and that seemed a reasonable bet based on his work last year.
After that, Pivetta, who had been reliable but average for the prior two years.
(So that gets you 4 -- or 3 if you want to assign a half-season pass to Sale and another to Paxton.)
For the remaining one or two spots, we had Houck, Whitlock, and Crawford. All had shown the potential to be effective starters -- none were 100% locks, sure, but they were all relatively young and under control.
Then they signed Kluber. Maybe he wasn't going to be great, but he should have been an effective 5, and given some depth to the staff.
So that's a total of 8 potential starters. Nobody was saying prior to the year that Pivetta would implode and resurge, or that Kluber was entirely toast, or that Houck and Whitlock would go down to injury.