I'm trying to think of the last large market team to voluntarily bottom out this low and then immediately bounce back. The teams that I can think of who bottomed out stayed there for a while
Cubs and Houston. Cubs and Houston will always be mentioned any time there's a discussion of tanking, regardless of their unique situations. But I suppose only the Cubs tanked, won, and tanked again out of big market teams.
Actually, I find the Nats approach most interesting to contrast to the 2018 world champs. They have kept spending up in the post-Mookie, lame Sale era. Decided to pay for Devers rather than deal either him or Xander for a reboot. They did manage to make a good run in 2021 by hanging on and adding. They did not bottom as hard as we did, but they are getting high draft picks due to bad finishes. They are closer to .500 with J. Turner and the new LF from Japan. It will be interesting to see whether their patch and spend approach allows them to rebuild without being as unwatchable and pathetic as the Nats will be.
