Entering the final week of the 2024 Major League Baseball season, the Chicago White Sox face the unsavory reality of potentially ending with the worst record in modern baseball history. Currently standing at 36-120, the White Sox have matched the infamous 1962 New York Mets with 120 losses and have six remaining games.
Struggling offensively, the White Sox have posted a team slash line of .220/.278/.339—substantially below the league-average of .244/.312/.400. These figures translate to an OPS+ of 76, indicating they are 24% worse than the league average in both getting on base and hitting for power. The team's power outage is further highlighted by their league-worst 127 home runs, with no player managing to hit 20 over the course of the season. Their offense has struggled to produce runs, averaging a league-low 3.07 runs per game. Comparatively, even the Tampa Bay Rays, who rank second-to-last in this metric, have averaged 3.78 runs per game.
Defensively, the White Sox have been equally abysmal. They rank last in total zone runs with -83, far behind the Miami Marlins, who are 29th at -53 total zone runs. The defensive deficiencies have contributed to a staggering -320 run differential, as the team has been outscored 799-479.
Andrew Vaughn has emerged as a key player on this struggling team, leading in both RBIs and runs with 67 and 54 respectively. However, his individual performance still places him 103rd out of 130 qualifying batters in OPS for the batting title, underscoring the larger issues affecting the team's overall productivity.
On the pitching front, the situation has been equally grim. Erick Fedde, who leads the team in Wins Above Replacement (WAR), has not taken the mound since July 27. The team’s overall WAR, according to FanGraphs, sits at an embarrassing -6.8, making them the only team with a negative figure. For context, the Colorado Rockies, the next worst team in this category, have a positive 4.1 WAR.
The White Sox's struggles have been particularly pronounced on the road, where they have a dismal 16-62 record, the worst in the league. Their home performance isn't much better, standing at 20-58, also the worst in the league. In franchise history, the team had never previously lost more than 55 road games or 53 home games in a single season.
This season has been marked by several lengthy slumps for the White Sox, including losing streaks of 21, 14, and 12 consecutive games. Additionally, they have had losing streaks of seven, six, and two separate five-game spells, one of which is still active. Historically, the White Sox had only suffered three losing streaks of 12 games or more, which occurred in 1924, 1927, and 1967.
Since the All-Star break, the team's record stands at a shocking 9-49. Remarkably, no team has ever won fewer than 15 games in a full second half of a season, a record currently held by the Athletics, who went 15-61 in both 1915 and 1943. For the White Sox, their best months were May and June, each with a 9-19 record. Their worst month was July, where they managed just three wins against 22 losses.
Despite these dire statistics, the White Sox managed winning records against a handful of teams. They were 2-1 against the Braves, Rockies, and Cardinals, 4-2 against the Rays, and 2-1 against the Nationals. Against their own division, however, it has been a different story, as they are 12-41 against the rest of the American League Central.
As the 2024 season draws to a close, the Chicago White Sox are set to endure the most challenging season in their storied history, with a blend of poor offense, defense, and pitching creating a perfect storm of underperformance. This season will long be remembered, but for all the wrong reasons, standing as a cautionary tale of how quickly fortunes can turn in professional sports.