Garrett Richards, Martin Perez and now E-Rod, gone. They accounted for over 400 innings and 75 starts last season with an overall ERA of about 4.75. We have to be able to do better than that. E-Rod at $15'ish Million is not horrible, but I understand moving on. E-Rod had a down year for ERA in 2021 relative to career averages and recent trends. But as someone said, he is pretty consistently a 5 inning guy.
So our starters will be Sale (3.16 era), Eovaldi (3.75 era), and Pivetta (4.53 era) at the top. Likely Houck (3.52 era) and maybe Whitlock (1.96 era but as a reliever). Then we should pick up another legit lefty 5th (maybe 6th) starter, not at $77M though. Then another scrape heap type starter to fill in as the 6th starter if Whitlock stays in the pen.
I wonder if Whitlock is better as a reliever. He was a nice option out of the pen. Whitlock was a starter in the minors in 2018 (21 starts) and 2019 (14 starts). I think he missed the entire 2020 season after elbow surgery. If he can be more like Houck as a starter, then he should be a starter and may compete to be the 3rd or 4th starter. But if he is the 5th or 6th starter, he is probably more valuable in the pen.