It's human nature, or maybe just a byproduct of our times, when instant gratification rules the day.
To paraphrase the old political question: Are the Red Sox better off today than they were two days ago?
The answer is unequivocally yes. Kyle Schwarber, wherever the Red Sox decide to play him, gives them an impact bat, one with on-base skills and plus power. Few would argue that point. (The degree to which the Red Sox benefit from also obtaining two depth relievers -- righty Hansel Robles and lefty Austin Davis -- is less clear).
But these moves don't happen in a vacuum. It's one thing to note that the Sox got better; it's quite another to determine if they were sufficient to hold off the three teams behind them in the American League standings, each of whom acted in a bolder fashion than the Red Sox.
That question probably won't be answered until the end of the regular season at the earliest, and perhaps, until the end of October. Then, and only then, we'll be able to determine whether the Sox did enough to stay ahead of the pack.
But in the immediate aftermath of the trade deadline, Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom is fully cognizant that a portion of the fan base wishes Bloom had been more aggressive in upgrading the roster.
"Any fan would love to see their team right in the thick of it,'' said Bloom in a Zoom call with reporters, "and love to them making big moves. We would, too. But we aren't going to do that when those moves could run counter to our goals.''
The Red Sox failed to improve their rotation, or find a more experienced option at first base to bolster the negligible production the team has gotten out of the position this season. It wasn't for lack of effort by Bloom. But as always, he's balancing the wish to improve the fortunes of this year's team without handcuffing the team for the future.
It's a tough duality, particularly when the Yankees added Anthony Rizzo Thursday and the Blue Jays acquired Jose Berrios on Friday.
"We want to win and we're really passionate about what we do and we know hard it is to get to this position,'' said Bloom. "We don't take that for granted. But at the same time -- I've said it all along and I mean -- we want to win a lot. And we want to win every year. And if you want the future to be really good, you have to take care of the future and you have to care about that. That's a very difficult to walk, it's a tough balance. That's why we need to stay strong in our plan and try to walk that tightrope as much as we can.''
Part of the issue was the market took a surprising turn in favor of the sellers. While the expectation across the industry was that asking prices would come down in the final 24 hours before the deadline, with teams auctioning off established players having to scale back on their demands, the opposite was instead true.
Additionally, it's likely that the Red Sox haven't sufficiently restocked their farm system to give them the freedom to dip into it to fill present-day needs. The Los Angeles Dodgers were able to acquire both Max Scherzer and Trea Turner precisely because they have been so focused on building an elite player development pipeline. When that's been achieved, it's a lot easier to deal from a position of strength.
"A lot of what we saw today that our competitors did,'' noted Bloom, "they were in a position to do because they had done the right thing and the disciplined thing over a long period of time, to build up that organizational strength and build up a huge trove of young players that they can either use to help their clubs or to move in trades. I'm really happy with (how far) we've come, but we have a long way to go.
"To turn us our backs on what got us here -- what got us to the short-term reward that put in first place right now -- would really be, at the end of the day, be irresponsible and I don't think we'd be doing right by anybody if we did that...That's not to say that the future always wins every time. We were prepared to pay some long-term costs, as long as we felt it was reasonable. We just didn't.
"It was really interesting to see everything that was happening all around us. But I think the worst thing you can do at the end of the day is start being reactive to that instead of staying with what you know you need to take care of.''
A case in point may have been Berrios. The Blue Jays surrendered two of their top four prospects -- infielder/outfielder Austin Martin and pitcher Simeon Woods-Richardson -- to the Twins in order to get Berrios. Berrios is under control through the end of 2022, but looking at the Toronto package, the equivalent Red Sox package may have cost them Tanner Houck and Jeter Downs. That's a price the Sox were unwilling to pay.
Should the Blue Jays or Yankees (or Rays) catch the Red Sox in the standings, or if the Sox bow out early in the postseason, the blowback for Bloom will be considerable.
But it's worth noting that Bloom's under-the-radar moves over the winter -- which also seemed conservative at the time -- have paid enough dividends to have the Sox in first place as the deadline arrived.
If that doesn't earn him the benefit of the doubt with his more cautious approach to the deadline, a division title and long October run could do the trick.