Os lack of pitching depth and experience is being exposed. Firmly believe Elias made the call to roll the dice with what he had to build long term success. Elias would not make the 2014 EROD-Andrew Miller trade or 2023 equivalent to win the ALDS. Losing Bautista made projections worse and unfortunately occurred after the deadline. Had Fuji been lights out things could have played out differently.
Replacing Frazier, Urias and Mateo with Holliday(starting 2B), Ortiz (utility /Westburg plays 3B until Mayo is ready) and Cowser (platoons with Hays in LF) makes 2024 team better. Spend FA $ acquiring BP quality (no Bautista), together with dumpster diving and $$ on another SP. No projectable quality pitching in minors that we can count on for next year.
Crazy to think a 101 win team is still a WIP but hard to win the postseason with a 5 game ALDS WC round - imagine the Os were playing Texas in a 7 game series now for a trip to WS- need everything to click in post-season and almost no weaknesses- Os not quite there. Hope Elias is right about long term plan cause as a fan this series has been a gut punch.