The things that have turned this season so far from a slow start to a historically bad one are the Donaldson injury, and the awful start from Travis & Pearce.
JD is the team MVP. Pearce was meant to quickly win an everyday role and result in one of Smoak or Carrera getting released. Travis was mean to hit for average and therefore give rbi opportunities for the sluggers.
All the other factors (Injuries, Bautista, slow first few weeks from Martin, Osuna & Grilli issues, Salty) would likely still have resulted in a slow start but we'd probably be around .500 if JD, Travis and Pearce (1/3 of the lineup) had provided what was expected.