Are the White Sox the worst team in baseball history?

In sports, there are teams who have extremely bad seasons. The 76ers endured five years of tanking, only to be back where the team started before “the process.” The Mets in the 1960s were absolutely terrible, although they did win a World Series title in 1969, led by Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan, and Jerry Koosman. Even the New York Yankees have struggled and have even finished last in the league before, ironically the same year the Mets won the World Series.

And then you get to the point where it is just insane. Fort William, a Scottish lower division soccer team, went 180 matches in a row before registering a win. For context, that is 15 years of nothing but losing. But we haven’t hit what is likely the worst sports team ever constructed in the history of professional sports.

The Chicago White Sox this year were absolutely terrible. This is a team that has been woefully terrible from the start of the season. The team has broken the record for the most games lost in a single season.

Below is the list of offensive statistics of the Chicago White Sox:

Runs per Game: 3.13

Batting Average: .221

On Base Percentage: .278

Slugging Percentage: .340

On Base Percentage plus Slugging: .618

Let’s go over the stats first off. The White Sox as a TEAM are batting .221. That is the worst team batting average in the majors. Their OPS for the entire season for the team is .617, which is on base percentage plus slugging percentage. Their on base percentage is .278, behind the next lowest team in that category in the majors, the Florida Marlins. Their Slugging Percentage is .339. For anyone unaware, the formula for Slugging percentage is the total number of types of hits they get times the number of bases scored from each, divided by the number of at-bats a player has. The slugging percentage of the White Sox is 31 points lower than the next lowest team in that category in the majors, again the Florida Marlins. And that is only the batting stats. The place where it seems that the White Sox are doing bad is getting on base. The On Base percentage is in the high 270s, which means that the team is not getting on base enough to score runs. And if you can’t get on base, you aren’t going to score many runs, which means that you put more pressure on the pitching staff.

Well then how about the pitching staff?

Let’s see the pitching staff’s numbers:

Runs Allowed Per Game: 5.02

Earned Run Average: 4.68

Walks plus Hits per Inning: 1.437

Hits per 9 innings: 8.9

Walks per 9 innings: 4.1

Well that doesn’t look good at all. It seems that the team’s lack of offense is dragging the pitching staff into the abyss. The team’s pitching has been abysmal as well. The team’s Earned Run Average was 4.77, which is third worst in the majors, behind the Colorado Rockies and the lowly Florida Marlins. They have allowed the most walks in baseball. The pitching has been better than the hitting, but not by a whole lot better. Because the team can’t score runs, it depends on pitching and the bullpen to do work, and when the bullpen can’t sustain the pressure of a tight scoring game, eventually the pitching is going to show cracks.

So why is the team so bad? It comes down to the decisions of the front office. In November, they let Tim Anderson and Liam Hendriks go in free agency. Both of these players had down seasons in 2023 but were still very good players. They traded Dylan Cease to the San Diego Padres in the middle of Spring Training. They did acquire Micheal Soroka and other pieces in a trade with the Atlanta Braves. The team wasn’t expected to be good. They were projected to win only 67 games, which is more than DOUBLE the amount of wins they probably will finish the season with.

Then came several long losing streaks that took the life out of the team. From May 22 to June 6, they lost 14 games in a row. Then, from July 10 to Aug. 5, they lost an astounding 21 games consecutively. They broke the team record for the most consecutive games lost not once but TWICE, and broke the team record for most games lost consecutively at home, losing 16 consecutive games at home. They have lost 10 or more games consecutively not once, not twice, but THRICE. They also broke the record for the shortest time needed to lose 100 games, doing so on Aug. 25, with a month and a week left in the season.

Still, the team does have some hope for the future. Garrett Crochet has been a bright spot for the team this year. He has made the team worth watching at least every fifth day of the season. The White Sox may have a superstar on their hands, which may help when they need to trade him for prospects to jumpstart their rebuild. Erick Fedde has been good as well, incredibly sporting a winning record for the lowly White Sox. Unfortunately, they traded him to the Cardinals. Luis Robert Jr is still a top talent. Maybe he will be traded to the Dodgers for a pretty penny. Still, the team has a long way to go before they are ready to contend for a World Series.

The last 105 years have not been kind to the South Siders. After throwing the 1919 World Series, and seeing Joe Jackson, who would have been a hall of famer if he wasn’t involved, and other talented ball players being banned for throwing the World Series, the White Sox haven’t had a whole lot to write home about. They went 40 years without winning a pennant, and then suddenly, in 1959, they won a pennant, but lost in the World Series. They then had to wait 40+ years to make it back, as the fans suffered agonizing season after agonizing season. Then, in 2005, they suddenly pulled a deep playoff run out of nowhere , winning the World Series up against the Houston Astros, who were in the NL at the time. That is the last time the White Sox won a postseason series. 

This is a clown show, not baseball. A Little League team could beat these guys. They are so bad that the Royals and the Tigers are going to make the playoffs simply because they have the White Sox in the same division. The White Sox are the reason the Royals made the playoffs. This is the cold, hard truth. The only two reasons I can think of why the team isn’t good besides poor play is because of Jerry Reinsdorf and the fact he is a cheapskate. He sold Dylan Cease because he wouldn’t pay him what he deserved for having to put up with the worst team in baseball. He signed him to a one year, $8,000,000 contract, which shows that even if he is the Chicago White Sox’s best pitcher, arguably the best pitcher in baseball in 2022, finishing second in the Cy Young Award vote. The payroll of the White Sox has been consistently average for the league. That is why the winning percentage for the White Sox since he took over has been around 15th in the league all time. He is willing to put up with mediocrity. Some have suggested Reinsdorf’s mental faculties are declining. He is still stuck in the 1990s business-wise. It is clear that the man cares more about the Chicago Bulls, which he also is the owner of, than the White Sox.

So will things ever change for the White Sox? Not with Jerry Reinsdorf in charge it won’t. The best thing for the White Sox would be if he sells the team. That’s not going to happen, though. So the White Sox are going to be bad for a while it seems.