He acquired four free agents last season who probably contributed around 10 wins (I think the official WAR was seven) though obviously that was balanced out by Hoskins being worth less. I'm sure it will be a similar number of big acquisitions this year. We can all lament not getting Yelich or Stanton or even Mostaukas but not many people actually wanted to pull the plug on Franco and Herrera/Williams/Altherr last year. Now everybody's replaceable and that should mean a couple of interesting trades.
But if you do trade Herrera and make Quinn your CF you probably also still need a another option there. You could hope Altherr finds his bat again or you could just get a defensive guy and live with it (or live with Altherr). Just counting on Quinn is a big question mark even if he was 100% healthy, as with any young player.
What we learned this off-season is the cupboard was really bare - even more so if Crawford and Kingery aren't answers (though we don't know that yet). That understandably makes one impatient for the rebuild to get moving more quickly but in reality could mean the opposite. But the timeline hasn't changed - have a .500 team this past year, be a true playoff contender next year (ideally actually making the playoffs), win the division and a playoff series in 2020. The goals and expectation can certainly be higher for next season - and obviously are - but you can't do that by turning over half the roster. Some of what's already here needs to develop, improve or bounce back for it to happen, even with Machado and whoever else.