Rebuilding in baseball has become synonymous with prolonged stretches of losing, and it’s not an unfair association.
Before the Chicago Cubs rode a core of homegrown players and veteran additions to a World Series win last year, they sat in the National League cellar for five consecutive seasons from 2010-14. The Houston Astros, currently running away with the American League West, previously were so purposefully bad that they won 56 games or fewer for three straight years. The Kansas City Royals and Pittsburgh Pirates have followed similar paths to success in the last few years.
The reason teams take such a cynical tack is because the economics of the game incentivize doing so.