Granted, it would be more than just adding those guys. It’s likely that there’s some level of improvement among Robles/Garcia/kieboom. Plus maturation from our young pitchers gray/Adon, the strong likelihood that at least one of cavalli or Henry will debut next year in some capacity, and we can see if Rogers or Espino prove something.
This doesn’t even factor in bullpen natural improvement, the 90% chance that strasburg and Corbin contribute more this year (it wouldn’t take much), or the fact that we get full seasons of lane and Keibert who have shown already had success at the major league level and have shown no reason to doubt them.
We’re closer than people think. Next year is possible if rizzo is smart this offseason. One biggish bat and a couple Harrison/Flores/Rosario/Villar type guys
Regression works in both directions.
Bell posted the second-best season of his career; maybe that's sustainable, particularly hitting behind Soto, but maybe it's not.
Escobar, at age 34 and after being out of the league since 2018, posted an OPS 100 points higher than his career average, the first time he'd posted an OPS+ over 75 since 2014.
Espino threw 109 innings of essentially league average, also at age 34, after having no track record of any sustained reasonable production.
People forget that Ross also threw over 100 innings of essentially league average. That's highly unlikely to happen again given his injury.
Yadiel Hernandez, also well into his 30s, produced league-average offense as a rookie.
Lane Thomas, out of nowhere, posted the same OPS+ as Manny Machado and Carlos Correa.
Any success next year seems to rely on those results repeating as well. Not going to happen.