Competitive edge in the long-run.
Restructuring their teams business model is the whole process. They have to sell players to receive minor league players, possibly get new ownership, and also change how they spend money all across the board not just on the field.
We saw this same thing happen with the Houston Astros and Jeff Luhnow. He completely overhauled a lousy system that was already failing. By the time he came over and restructured the Astros in 2012, they were coming off a 56 win 2011 season.
Same as the Cubs and Theo Epstein, they were already bad before.
Also, this is precisely what we are about to see with the Miami Marlins. When have the Marlins been good recently? Your answer: they have not been over .500 since 2009. Also, a failing organization.
To say that tanking, restructuring, or reorganizing their baseball business, whichever term you see as best, is hurting the MLB, I mean take a look around. Teams that are bad are trying something different.
The game is getting smarter, and teams want to get better long-term like the St. Louis Cardinals. Even the sound teams are using the same ideas the “tanking” teams are using in the analytical department. Which is an argument for another day regarding the market slowness?
However, bad teams have to have a model to compete for long-term and even it is a competitive way small market teams can create great teams for a long window of success, giving them a competitive edge in the long-run.