This post overrates how much Harris inherited from Avila. Harris basically saved Avila’s draft picks.
Mize was an often-injured underachiever. Jobe had just been drafted and hadn’t done anything yet. Riley was a rookie. Olson, Keith, and Dingler were all minor leaguers who hadn’t done anything yet. Meadows was an underachieving minor leaguer perpetually stuck in neutral. Tork was flailing like a fish washed up on the beach. Only Skubal was a finished product, and he basically developed himself outside Avila’s system.
Aso, keep in mind that Mize and Tork were consensus 1-1 picks, and Riley was the #5 overall consensus pick. So Avila ended up just taking the same guy everyone else would have taken anyway.
I will grant you Jackson Jobe was considered a way out there pick, but his development also belongs to Harris as well.
So, to the degree Avila’s draft picks are great contributors to our team, practically none of them were due to Avila’s drafting and development genius. It took Harris and his hires to turn them into as productive as major leaguers as they are. And even though these Avila’s picks are still in the system, Harris had to ****can a lot a lot of other Avila picks and signs.