His best work has been acquiring young controlled talent through trades like Palencia, PCA, Brown and Busch.
He’s in a tough spot where he only has access to a fringe top 10 payroll without permission to exceed the LT and doesn’t have the small market perks of being awarded extra draft picks so this is the expected result.
But any development from Shaw has been stalled with the Bregman contract. Instead of Cease he has $400+ million owed to 3 aging middle infielders. So if Bregman doesn’t start playing to the back of his baseball card, which is assuming a lot at age 32 then that’s a serious failure from the team’s projection models and you’re left with your top infield prospect/1st round pick blocked from his natural position.
If this team wants to replenish their farm system then trading Ben Brown in the offseason, no matter how counterintuitive can bring in a haul of prospects if he keeps this up. I can’t say I’m confident in Swanson and Bregman playing at a high level for the remainder of their deals.