Basing the front office's performance on wins and losses in 2017-18 when the team basically had a one year window (2016 - which the front office successfully took advantage of) is insane, though. Holding that opinion completely removes context. That's the definition of being uninformed. The average fan in that scenario is ignorant, as are any media who endorses that narrative.
I'm not saying Shatkins has been perfect, but they've had to basically tread water at the big league level and rebuild at the same time. If it lead to a WC spot either last year or this year then at least it would look better, but it was still a low upside proposition. I wouldn't blame it on them when Rogers owns this year. Rogers is known to stagnate payroll when there is a window (2014) and increase payroll when the team has sucked for a couple of years (2004, 2013). Would not surprise me at all if after 3 straight years of high attendance and ratings that they wanted to keep the money coming in at the expense of baseball decisions. As I said, Shapiro has rebuilt a bunch of times. I'm sure he knows this team needs one, but either his hands are tied, or he's decided himself to try to do both to keep revenue up and rebuild at the same time (which makes him look better to his boss's). I'm guessing it's the former.