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Charlie Riedel/Associated Press

Rebuilding is not about immediate gratification. It's about staying the course and waiting for young talent to develop. These teams fit the bill.

Atlanta Braves

The Braves have done things the right way.

They've committed to rebuilding and built one of the deepest farm systems in baseball, giving their prospects time to develop while plugging roster holes with short-term veteran additions.

While they may still be a couple years away from making a legitimate push toward contention, there is already an impressive offensive core in place with Freddie Freeman, Ender Inciarte, Dansby Swanson and Ozzie Albies penciled into starting jobs and Ronald Acuna expected to join them in short order.

If even a couple of their high-end pitching prospects develop as hoped, they'll be set up nicely for long-term success.

Chicago White Sox

Props to general manager Rick Hahn for the work he's done bolstering the White Sox farm system.

Dating back to the winter meetings last year, a whopping 12 of the team's top 20 prospects—per MLB.com—have been added to the organization via trade or the draft. And that doesn't include Yoan Moncada, Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez, who exhausted their prospect status.

The future is incredibly bright.

The immediate future is a different story, but there's no reason to mortgage what they've spent the past year stockpiling. Just look to the North Side and follow the blueprint.

Cincinnati Reds

The Reds have topped 90 losses each of the past three seasons and there's still work to do before they are ready to call themselves contenders again.

Most of the questions are on the pitching side of things.

The rotation has the potential to be a strength if Anthony DeSclafani and Homer Bailey are healthy and young guys like Luis Castillo and Robert Stephenson can take another step forward.

Those are big ifs, though.

For now, the focus remains on farm-system development and internal player assessment before they consider making any splashy offseason moves.

Detroit Tigers

The Tigers dove headfirst into rebuilding at the trade deadline when they shipped out Justin Verlander, Justin Upton, J.D. Martinez, Justin Wilson and Alex Avila.

That trend has continued this winter as Ian Kinsler was dealt to the Los Angeles Angels.

There's not much left in the way of moveable pieces on the roster, so now the No. 1 priority will be prospect development.

Among the team's top 20 prospects, Franklin Perez (1), Daz Cameron (5), Jake Rogers (7), Isaac Paredes (9), Grayson Long (14) and Dawel Lugo (15) have all been acquired via trade since last summer.

Kansas City Royals

The mass free-agency exodus of Eric Hosmer, Lorenzo Cain, Mike Moustakas, Mike Minor, Jason Vargas and Alcides Escobar has left the 2015 World Series champions at a turning point.

The door has slammed shut on their window of contention and they're left with a roster that's lacking in controllable impact talent and a farm system devoid of top-tier prospects.

The question now is whether they'll start selling off remaining pieces like Kelvin Herrera, Danny Duffy, Whit Merrifield and Scott Alexander in an effort to restock the system.

Either way, there's no sense of desperation in the first year of what figures to be a lengthy rebuild.

Oakland Athletics

So far, the Athletics have opted to hold onto moveable pieces like Khris Davis, Sean Manaea, Kendall Graveman and Blake Treinen.

In fact, they actually swung a trade to acquire bounce-back candidate Stephen Piscotty and his team-friendly contract from the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Oakland front office committed to a full rebuild last summer and there's no reason to think they've they'll walk that back before the offseason is over.

In fact, with plenty of good, young talent on the MLB roster, this could be a team to watch in 2018.

San Diego Padres

Bob Nightengale of USA Today reported last week that the Padres had emerged as the "clear-cut favorites" to sign free agent Eric Hosmer.

If that happens, great.

If not, they're still focused on two or three years down the road, not 2018 and there will be other high-profile free agents to target along the way before the Friars are ready to contend again.