I tied the collapse to my being hiatus, ironically enough. I think the most likely conspiratorial answer is that a lot of fan money was on bets that we would win the WS and someone has manipulated events to win those bets. But this isn't wrestling and there is no way to do that because nobody ever fixes games.
The thing that matters is what can be fixed in this season and next.
This season, they need to reset Riley Greene to factory settings and perhaps tell him to hit like our best player.
They finally got rid of Morton at great personal grief to Hinch. Not having SP to step into the Olson spot or even the Jobe spot hurt. Paddack being a muppet as a SP hurt.
You can say they lost this division when they didn't acquire a better BP but Finnegan was good until he broke.
I think they needed another veteran bat but where and who?
I've already regrouped and am ready for next year. They need to get a #2 SP and another Gleyber Torres level hitter in the offseason.