White Sox set modern MLB record for futility with their 121st loss

The Chicago White Sox officially redefined baseball futility Friday when they fell to the host Detroit Tigers, 4-1, for their 121st loss of the season. They eclipsed the 1962 New York Mets - a team patched together after an expansion draft stumbling through its first year of existence - for the title of worst team in Major League Baseball’s modern era, which began after the 1900 season. (The 1899 Cleveland Spiders still hold the major league record for losses after going 20-134, a total the White Sox can’t reach.)

If they win their last two games, the White Sox (39-121) would finish with 41 victories. The second-worst team in baseball, the Miami Marlins, won their 41st game Aug. 3. The Philadelphia Phillies won their 41st game June 1.

Their ineptitude was so obvious so early on, their position on the precipice of infamy inevitable so early, that fans came to Guaranteed Rate Field in Chicago this week just to see history. And funnily enough, the White Sox made them wait - through a rain delay and late comeback Tuesday, into a late-night extra innings win Wednesday, and on past a blowout victory Thursday - before ultimately breaking the record on the road, helping the Tigers clinch an unlikely playoff berth Friday in the process. It was as if standing on the brink helped the White Sox dig in their heels - at least enough to sweep the Los Angeles Angels, who are also on the verge of securing the most losses in their franchise history.

The mood around the team in recent weeks has been one of resigned acceptance as it has hurdled toward history, loss after loss.

“There’s been a lot of wellness checks from friends in and out of the game, which I appreciate,” General Manager Chris Getz said. “But it’s not needed as much as they might think.”

Asked about the toughest moment of the season, outfielder Corey Julks smiled and offered: “I don’t know, man. No comment.”

It has been difficult from the start because these White Sox were not built to succeed. They began the season looking hapless, played like it in April and May, then dealt every appealing trade candidate over the summer except for starter Garrett Crochet, whom they held with every intention of trading later. Their most expensive and established major leaguer, Andrew Benintendi, entered Friday with minus-0.5 Wins Above Replacement, according to FanGraphs, to go with a .228 batting average and a .680 OPS. No one in Chicago’s lineup has accumulated more than 1.0 WAR.

As a team, the White Sox owned a cumulative WAR of minus-6.3, meaning their roster has performed more than six wins worse than it would have with entirely replacement-level players. Since integration, only 34 teams have finished a season with negative FanGraphs WAR. Only two, the 1977 Atlanta Braves and 1979 Oakland Athletics, were worse than Chicago in 2024.

The White Sox have lost in some remarkable ways. In May, they lost on a runner’s interference call amid a furious ninth-inning rally. In June, they lost on a walk-off grand slam. In August, an opposing outfielder scaled the wall in the bottom of the ninth to rob what would have been a winning home run and help secure another defeat.

The on-field futility has been matched by a string of mind-bending off-the-field headlines over the past year. The White Sox lost popular TV broadcaster Jason Benetti to a smaller media market in Detroit; a woman who was shot during a game at Guaranteed Rate Field last season filed a lawsuit against the team; and in the midst of all the losing, owner Jerry Reinsdorf is on a quest to secure somewhere in the range of $1 billion in public money for a new downtown ballpark.

Perhaps adding even more insult to even more injury, because of MLB’s new anti-tanking rules, the highest the White Sox can pick in next year’s draft is 10th. (“The rules are the rules,” Getz said. “I don’t spend too much time calling the commissioner’s office hoping that they’re going to change the rule for us to get the top pick.”)

None of this should be surprising. The White Sox are less a product of underperformance than failed leadership. They were largely built by former general manager Rick Hahn and team president Ken Williams, both of whom worked their way around Reinsdorf’s careful spending before being fired during another hapless season in 2023. Getz was promoted from within the organization without any semblance of a search for external candidates. He made the decision to fire manager Pedro Grifol in August and leave it to interim manager Grady Sizemore to oversee the end of one of the worst seasons in baseball history.

If there is a positive for Chicago, it is that the White Sox spent this summer - like so many recent summers before it - trading their few valuable players for impressive young talent. They should, in theory, have plenty of good young players around whom to build in the future. But under Hahn and Williams, the White Sox struggled to move from the talent accumulation stage of the rebuild to on-field progress. Getz’s first year at the helm has not been good, and he was part of the front office that built the team he inherited. Still, the former major leaguer has had just one offseason in which to maneuver. He hired a well-regarded Mets scout, David Keller, as a special assistant this week. Change might be coming, albeit slowly.

“Looking at the standings does not make me happy,” Getz said. “There’s no joy in the win-loss record. You feel for the players and the coaches that are on the front lines of this regularly, but I get to step back. You have the draft; you’ve got your player development system. We’re working on things on the international side. We’re looking at trade deadline and future acquisitions ... which allows you to not just rely on your major league win-loss record for joy. It would be nice not to have the [modern MLB] record, but at this point I view it as a really cool opportunity to do something special.”

White Sox fans will have to be convinced.

During Tuesday night’s game, Zac Lyons snuck a giant banner into the ballpark under his jacket. He, along with several friends, unfurled the message for Reinsdorf late in the game: “Sell the team.” The group was promptly ushered out by security guards. As Lyons made his way up the aisle, amid jeers from other fans, another fan handed him a paper bag with the eyes cut out to wear, a costume worn by dozens of fans around the ballpark. Lyons hugged the security guard on his way out.

“I need some good memories,” he said. “So we made the sign and got kicked out.”

He added: “I mean, it’s a statement. The team is terrible.”

Strauss reported from Chicago.