Rate our pitching staff, following the Price trade

[TorontoRaptures]

A few questions:
1. Following the recent acquisitions of Price and Hawkins, the trade of Doubront and Castro, the return of Sanchez from injury, and the chance of a September Stroman return, what are your expectations for this pitching staff?
2. If the Jays make the divisional series, which pitchers should start and in which order?
3. Who do you trust more, the starters or the relievers?
4. Do the Jays need to add another pitcher? If they can only acquire one, should they be looking at a starter or reliever? Any names you think they should target?
Thanks.

[Lukeem]

1. I expect this pitching staff to keep us in games, price to win every time he steps out there unless off lays an egg.

2. Price, buehrle/ dickey (whichever is hotter first) hutch/ Estrada ( same as earlier but one wont be needed maybe neither depending on days off for price)
3. Situational front three generally more than relivers though
4. Craig kimbrel. With our offense we should be able to get wins when starters dont do well as long as we can shut teams down when needed. Getting a reliable closer makes every starter more valuable and since price is the only truly reliable one right now we need this more than anything.

I say sell the farm and get a closer + a starter though

Over the next five years work at rebuilding it while hopefully we contend each year as well and wont be looking to bring along prospects on the big league team
.

[Xaos]

We have our closer in Osuna. Get us another starter and outfielder (leadoff guy with speed and good contact/avg) and we are set imo.

[North_of_Border]

Rotation:

Price, Dickey, Burhle, Estrada...... Solid. Just dont feel confortable with Hutch. Though I guess as the #5 guys it could work.
wouldnt mind another starter. mid rotation type guy. Pushing Estrada to #5. Then we are loaded.

Bullpen:

Osuna, Sanchez, Hawkins, Cecil, Schultz...... thats solid. Bullpen seems to be shaping up.
Though it cant compete with the Yanks. Its improving though. Im happy rolling the dice on this group.
Add Marcus Stroman for the stretch.

[BigLeagueChew]

For the rotation, 5th in the AL, 15th in the MLB by stats. NL has many good pitching teams however they get to pitch to pitchers with no DH. The Jays could be ranked higher. Then we add someone with Stroman's abilty but who knows where we can rank him statistically if he manages to come back at this point.

#Bluejays 4.34 rotation ERA with Price. #Yankees 4.32 rotation ERA without Pineda.

[StopitLeo]

I'm hoping the trade refocuses our current staff as they will see that management is serious about going for it. Not that they weren't trying, but knowing there is a serious chance to compete can make a difference. You could even tell from Bautista's comments after the Tulo trade about it being "not necessarily what we need" and then sending AA a text asking "Is it true?" and altering being told yes replying with "Yes!!!!!!!!".

I think the rotation gives us a chance each game as long as the bats are there. If Dickey can keep up his recent form that would be a big deal. The knuckleball can come and go, but if he has found a groove that would really bolster things.

I do think the rotation could benefit from another starter though. If someone goes down we are in trouble. Someone like Samardjzia fits the mold, but I'm not sure he is still available. Also not sure it makes sense to spend our remaining resources to pickup another rental. If he wasn't being paid so much relative to his age I'd even like Shields, despite his playoff performance history.

In order of trust I have Price, the other starters (save for Hutch), and then the back end of the pen. I like Hawkins a lot from what I have seen. A solid middle relief lefty would be nice given Loup and Cecil's inconsistency. I don't think we need a closer.