So they do need to do things like trade for Segura, because they didn't have a SS in the system. Trading your 97 mph starter with 6+ years of club control for a one-year blown arm really hurts though. That's not trying to maximize talent, it's trying to maximize a window. Which is fine in theory, if a) you actually do maximize that window and b) you don't then try to tell your fans that you were not worried about a window because you plan to be good forever and there's plenty of talent blah blah blah.
Dipoto was trying to make a window work, but instead of being patient with his young talent he wanted to flip it for something that would be ready a year sooner. Maybe Gohara turns out to be a Pineda type with a tantalizing arm who can't really dominate for years. I guess Taijuan would be in that model. Of course, so would Paxton. But we are relying on the castoffs from much better orgs than Seattle has been at developing talent to miss on their talent evaluations. Yes, Segura and Haniger are good additions so far. Hopefully both can keep that up. But it's not like Taijuan faceplanted in Arizona with his ERA+ of 137. A team that is desperately searching for pitching is doing so in part because it moved one starter to closer, traded its other potential TOR arm into the desert and threw its best pitching prospects away for basically nothing.
Dipoto moved the ledger problems but didn't resolve them. The team has the same number of holes that they have had. Maybe this is the year he makes up that ground and actually patches holes instead of moving them around, but right now it still feels like a game of 3-card-monty to me, and Dipoto's running out of marked cards. He'd better figure it out.
I would also take him getting lucky. The Ms have been so damn unlucky for most of 2 decades now that some luck would be a welcome sight. Moore turning into Buehrle would be terrific. Gordon being Mike Cameron would also help.
But we're gonna need some luck, which is not what I would call sound planning from the top down. "Fingers crossed" is not a motto that engenders confidence in me in year 3 of the Dipoto regime, especially with the budding wasteland that the farm system has become. Still, I'll take what I can get.