With the 2024 Major League Baseball season coming to an end, the Chicago White Sox find themselves on the brink of an unenviable distinction. At 36-120, they are positioned to record the worst season in modern baseball history, a mark previously held infamously by the 1962 New York Mets. With six games remaining, the White Sox have tied the Mets' record of 120 losses and may set a new standard for futility.
The team’s statistics paint a grim picture. The White Sox are batting a paltry .220/.278/.339, significantly trailing the league-average slash line of .244/.312/.400. This is reflected in their OPS+ of 76, indicating that their players are performing 24% worse than the league average when it comes to getting on base and hitting for power.
Digging Deeper: Offensive Struggles
Home runs have been particularly scarce; the team sits dead last with just 127 homers for the season. No player has hit more than 20 home runs, and the White Sox are averaging a league-low 3.07 runs per game. Comparatively, the Tampa Bay Rays, who are 29th in this category, average 3.78 runs. The dire offensive performance is further underscored by their -320 run differential, having been outscored 799-479.
Andrew Vaughn has been a lone bright spot offensively, leading the team with 67 RBIs and 54 runs scored. However, his individual performance ranks 103rd out of 130 qualifying players in OPS, making his contribution marginal in the grand scheme of the league.
Defensive Woes
The narrative of failure extends to the defensive side. The White Sox have accumulated -83 total zone runs, a metric quantifying defensive efficiency, placing them at the very bottom of the league. The Miami Marlins, who are next worst, have -53 total zone runs, indicating a substantial gap. In stark contrast, the Brewers and Mariners lead the league with 46 total zone runs each.
Pitching Problems
On the mound, the troubles deepen. Erick Fedde, the team’s leader in Wins Above Replacement (WAR), hasn't pitched since July 27. The collective performance in FanGraphs' WAR metric is a disastrous -6.8, making the White Sox the only team with a negative figure. The Colorado Rockies, ranked 29th, have a relatively robust positive 4.1. Additionally, the White Sox have the worst road and home records in the league at 16-62 and 20-58, respectively. Remarkably, this season marks the first time in franchise history that they have lost more than 55 road games and 53 home games in a single year.
The White Sox's 2024 season has been marred by periods of prolonged slumps. They have endured losing streaks of 21, 14, and 12 games, along with additional streaks of seven, six, and two of five games, one of which is ongoing. Before this season, they had only experienced losing streaks of 12 games or more thrice—in 1924, 1927, and 1967.
The Second-Half Collapse
Since the All-Star break, the team has gone 9-49. No team in Major League history has recorded fewer than 15 wins in a full second half of the season, a dubious honor held by the A's, who managed 15-61 in both 1915 and 1943. The White Sox's best months were May and June, each concluding with a 9-19 record, while their worst was July, where they posted a dismal 3-22 record.
Opposing Teams
Against fellow competitors, the White Sox managed winning records against just five teams: the Braves (2-1), Rockies (2-1), Cardinals (2-1), Rays (4-2), and Nationals (2-1). However, their performance within their own division has been dreadful, recording a 12-41 mark against the rest of the AL Central.
Reflecting on the 2024 season, it’s evident that this campaign will go down as the most challenging in the annals of the Chicago White Sox. With grim milestones and historic lows defining much of their journey, the franchise faces a pivotal offseason as they reckon with a season that will be remembered for all the wrong reasons.