As the 2024 Major League Baseball season draws to a close, the Chicago White Sox are on the verge of setting a record no team aspires to: the worst record in modern baseball history. With a dismal 36-120 mark, the White Sox have already tied the infamously woeful 1962 New York Mets, and with six games remaining, they have a chance to stand alone in the annals of baseball's darkest seasons.
Offensive Woes
The White Sox's offensive struggles are glaring. As a team, they are hitting .220/.278/.339, well below the league-average slash line of .244/.312/.400. Their 76 OPS+ indicates they are 24% worse than the league average in getting on base and hitting for power, underscoring their ineffectiveness at the plate.
Power has been particularly elusive for the Sox, who rank dead last in home runs with only 127 on the season. Not a single player has reached the 20-home run mark, a testament to their inability to generate significant offensive firepower. The team's inability to consistently score is further highlighted by their average of just 3.07 runs per game, the lowest in the league and significantly behind the Rays, who rank 29th at 3.78 runs per game.
Defensive and Pitching Struggles
On the defensive front, the White Sox have been equally abysmal, posting -83 total zone runs—comfortably the worst in the league. By comparison, the Marlins, who rank 29th in this metric, have -53 total zone runs. Defensive metrics like these have only compounded their overall performance issues.
Serious injuries have not helped their plight. Erick Fedde, the team's leader in Wins Above Replacement (WAR), has not pitched since July 27. Without his contributions, the White Sox's collective performance in FanGraphs' version of WAR stands at a pitiful -6.8, the only negative figure in the league. The Rockies, who are 29th, manage to eke out a positive 4.1 WAR, demonstrating just how deep the White Sox’s struggles run.
Home and Away Woes
Geographically, it hasn't mattered where the White Sox played—they have been uniformly dreadful both home and away. Their 16-62 road record is the worst in the league, while their 20-58 home record is similarly dismal. Prior to this season, they had never lost more than 55 road games or 53 home games in a single season.
A Season of Streaks
The White Sox endured several lengthy losing streaks—21, 14, and 12 straight losses—each contributing to their catastrophic season. The last time the franchise suffered losing streaks of 12 games or more was in the distant years of 1924, 1927, and 1967. Additional losing streaks of seven, six, and two five-game slumps, one of which is still active, have further punctuated their struggles.
Since the All-Star break, the White Sox's record stands at a brutal 9-49. This performance puts them close to surpassing one of baseball's longstanding undesirable milestones. No team has ever won fewer than 15 games in a full second half—a record set by the Athletics with 15-61 in both 1915 and 1943.
Individual Performances
Andrew Vaughn stands out statistically for the team, leading in both RBIs and runs with 67 and 54, respectively. However, his performance places him 103rd out of 130 qualifying players in OPS for the batting title—an indication of the broader offensive deficiencies of the team.
Few Bright Spots in a Dark Season
Incredibly, against the backdrop of such a disappointing season, the White Sox managed to secure winning records against a handful of teams, including the Braves, Rockies, Cardinals, Rays, and Nationals. These isolated successes are dwarfed by their broader failings in the AL Central, where they post a 12-41 record.
May and June, with 9-19 records in each month, were the team’s best, which gives an impression of how the year has gone. July, marked by a 3-22 record, stands out as their worst month, encapsulating the season's downward spiral.
This harrowing 2024 campaign is a glaring aberration, even for a franchise with a long history. For fans and players alike, it's a season they will hope to quickly forget, as they look ahead to rebuilding and finding a way back to competitive baseball.