rosenthal was at least as good as hendriks in 2020, and adding romo and kolarek as well as bringing back everyone other than hendriks from last season is an improvement overall. but even if it's not:

no way did they get better offensively

moreland had a .879 OPS last year to davis's .632, which more than makes up the difference between semien (.679 last year) and andrus (.582). and even if it didn't, chapman back definitely does. but even if they do get worse:

The Astros not adding as much players as the As still puts the Astros ahead of them.

why? the a's were 7 games better in 2020. let's say neither of them improved (i think the a's improved but let's say they didn't, and i don't see how the astros improved). doesn't it follow that the a's should still be better? i'm fine with thinking the astros will finish ahead, but i don't get your reasoning at all. it seems like you have the astros ahead sort of by default, when they really weren't close to first place last season.