Wouldn't it be uproarious if all of these teams who decimated their farm systems didn't win and the Red Sox did. Win win.
Yeah, even if you don't think much of the prospects going out, a lot of guys are spending prospect capital for a chance to have a 50/50 shot of making the real playoffs.
I think the combination of the farm system being still only partially rebuilt and being so close to the LT is still a huge factor. Even though we reset the LR last year, it's clear that there are only a few consecutive years you can be over before ownership finds it prohibitive. The team is unexpectedly in contention which is great, but if you sacrifice your orgamizational principles so soon after starting down the current path, you run the risk of undoing the progress you painfully made.
It's like seeing COVID numbers going down a bit and saying "Hey everyone, we've done enough, no need to take precautions anymore or promote vaccines!"