Pillar, Navarro, Valencia, Goins is not a terrible bench, in fact Goins is pretty much doing as expected at 0 war and is a good late inning defensive substitute. There is also Smoak who should be our starting 1B, Bautista's injury hasn't helped things.
The problem is this season was headed this direction from game 1 when half the roster were experiments and several starters are fragile (Reyes, Saunders, arguably Bautista). The outcome was inevitable. I feel our bench players were good enough options for us it's just they haven't got to be used as bench roles. Pillar (our 4th outfielder) has been starting since the get go and Goins has played in more games than Travis.