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The comment about 'The Weakest Link' made me realize that the M's are rebuilding the organization in a manner very similar to the Theory of Constraints.
In this management philosophy, you identify the biggest thing that is keeping you from reaching your goal, the constraint. Then you put the whole organization to work eliminating that constraint. At this point, a new constraint will have emerged as the biggest one, so you tackle it. From Wikipedia:
Assuming the goal of the organization has been articulated (e.g., "Make money now and in the future") the steps are:
1. Identify the constraint (the resource or policy that prevents the organization from obtaining more of the goal)
2. Decide how to exploit the constraint (make sure the constraint's time is not wasted doing things that it should not do)
3. Subordinate all other processes to above decision (align the whole system or organization to support the decision made above)
4. Elevate the constraint (if required or possible, permanently increase capacity of the constraint; "buy more")
5. If, as a result of these steps, the constraint has moved, return to Step 1. Don't let inertia become the constraint.
Zduriencik stepped in to an organization with deficiencies in a lot of different areas. They are tackling multiple constraints at the same time, clearly prioritizing the biggest ones, trying to move the organization towards their goal.
They couldn't fix the offense, defense, and pitching all at once, so they started with defense - it could be fixed quicker and more cheaply than the others. In light of TOC, you can see why they would be so adamant about not sacrificing defense for offense. To do so would be reducing your defensive 'capacity' and would cause defense to become the constraint again sooner.