1. We weren't talking about this season.
2. The conversation is about what was inherited in 2017 and despite this 2021 bullpen looking like a trashfire for three months, they are currently... 12th... in the American League in ERA.
So, yeah, that's actually a good point you just made for me. The great pitching staff the front office inherited in 2017 included a bullpen that, comparatively speaking, was no better at preventing runs than this "everything that could have gone wrong, did" 2021 bullpen.