But whither the rotation you ask? Repeat after me: Felix, Pineda, Paxton, Hulzen, Walker and Campos.
Campos just finished a few innings in short-season as a teen. I don't expect him in the bigs for 3 years at the earliest.
Walker mowed down low-A as a teen as well but that won't put him in the rotation next year either. He's 2 years off, best-case.
Hultzen hasn't thrown a pitch for us so his ETA is entirely undetermined, and Paxton...well, Paxton's a freak. I do expect him in the rotation next season. But the (6 man) rotation you're talking about is assuming the health and success of prospects with very limited innings on their arms, several of whom are not in next year's plans or probably the year after.
I think we'll be all right without Fister. I do believe Plan A would have been to move Vargas, but once he tanked in the middle of the year and we wanted to capitalize on our pitching (especially with a return on Bedard being entirely up in the air due to injury) we pulled the trigger on the Fister deal.
And I think we got useful pieces back. The question is whether they'll be as useful as 200 innings of a 128 ERA+, 4 WAR pitcher for several years, which is what Fister has been this year and looks like he could come close to going forward.
That's not quite a Cy Young candidate...but there are 20 guys in both leagues with an ERA+ that high that qualify for the ERA title and he's #18, right behind Matt Cain, who also gets to throw to pitchers during games.
Matt Cain, I might add, IS a multiple-time All-Star who has gotten Cy Young votes.
WAR? 21 pitchers have accumulated 4+, and Doug makes that list at #15, right ahead of 2-time Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum.
Doug's not likely to win that Cy Young...but this version of Doug, right now, is a VERY good pitcher.
Hopefully Furbush and Ruffin are too, and Martinez and Wells can carry some water for this offense either on the field or via trade.
~G