29 of 30 teams that don't win the final game of the World Series could say their season was all for naught. But for fans of clubs who go deep in October, I'll bet they enjoyed the ride. Red Sox fans did last year and didn't even get out of the AL.
As for the payroll, forget the dead money owed Price and any others (I won't even count Sale, with his whopping 5.2 IP), but how much did Bloom pay out for actual new player additions -- Wacha, Hill, Diekman, Paxton's gym shorts, etc? That to me, is the accurate guage of whether a franchise is sincere: how much are they spending that year and on whom? And the luxury tax can't be an excuse this season, since they went over and chose to stay over.