They throw saints out, the rotters! (5)

'rotters' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both people as well as being plural nouns.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I don't see?

'they throw saints out' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'throw' could be 'lob' (lobbing is a kind of throwing) and 'lob' is found in the answer.
'saints' could be 'ss' and 'ss' is found in the remaining letters.
No letters remain.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

'the' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?