The Chicago White Sox Might Really Be This Bad

The struggling team is off to a 3-19 start and it might not get better.

Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

The Chicago White Sox have been a mess for several years and any glimmer of hope that came with some legitimately solid young talent evaporated under a cloud of Tony La Russa and perplexing front-office management. Expectations for this season weren't exactly sky-high but through the first weeks it appears that the situation is even worse. Any way a person slices the numbers, they find that this White Sox team is trending toward some infamy and posting one of the worst records in Major League baseball history.

Pedro Grifol's club was shut out in Cleveland last night to fall to 3-19 on the year. That's a winning percentage of .136, which extrapolates out to a 22-140 final record. If there's any good news for the club it's that such an atrocious clip has been literally unsustainable since people started playing baseball professionally.

The 1962 New York Mets have long held the record for worst season in MLB history at 40-120. The Detroit Tigers flirted with being even worse in 2003 and finished at 43-119. It's downright crazy that both of these awful teams won twice as frequently as the White Sox have been winning in 2024.

It's always important to remember that it's April and this is a marathon, not a sprint. But ESPN's David Schoenfield has a piece this morning that will have Sox fans extremely nervous as it's stuffed with numbers suggesting that things aren't going to get much better. And that this team could really be this bad.

Among the carnage:

• The White Sox have a run differential of -78, which is far grosser than the 1962 Mets (-44) carried to this point. It is, however, not as terrible as last year's Oakland A's were through 22 games (-103) before limping to a 50-112 finish.

• They've scored all of 45 runs, which translates to a paltry 2.04 per game. Those bumbling Mets had 92 at this point. The lackluster lineup is producing less than every team in history outside of the 2004 Montreal Expos, who did not have the benefit of a designated hitter.

So, yeah, it's not great. Throw in an American League Central featuring three teams — the Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals and Cleveland Guardians — playing much better ball than was expected, and it figures to be a long summer. Heck, it's already been an interminable April.