A very half assed look at the offense, with somewhat conservative WAR numbers for 2026.
PCA 4.5
Busch 3.5
Hoerner 4.0
Swanson 3.0
Happ 2.5
Suzuki 2.5
Kelly/Amaya 2.5
Shaw 2.0
Ballesteros/Caissie 2.0
That right there is 26.5 WAR, which would have put them 9th in baseball this year. That's obviously a good start, but there's not really an clear move there to get that number into the 30s, which three teams, including us, did in 2025. Trading Happ or Suzuki are probably lateral moves at best, going Tucker over Ballesteros/Caissie probably gets you another 3 or so but probably locks you out, budget wise, on a big pitcher.
I think you have to find a way to get out of the Taillon contract and do whatever you can, through trades and free agency, to pick up two better starters than him. Horton, Boyd, starter one, starter two, and then some combination of Shota/Assad/Rea/Wicks/whatever. Steele coming back is a bonus, and we've seen enough evidence to justify using the too many starters 'problem' as an excuse to give Boyd/Shota/etc some fake IL visits, long relief stretches, etc.