The Cubs are bad because they're the Cubs. The other teams you mention or alluded to are generally low budget teams trying to get something for a player they can't resign, and some (Miami, Tampa, Oakland among others) have been pretty successful. The counter-truism to yours is that not making major changes to a losing franchise just preserves a culture of losing. And if the rest of the league's past behavior is any gauge, the Twins have already made one major error on the side of caution in that regard with the retention of Gardenhire. With any luck, Ryan is making personnel decisions on a case-by-case basis to improve the future of one of the worst 25 man rosters in baseball, and not just going by a philosophy of either hanging onto or dumping almost everyone.