The 2024 MLB season isn't likely to produce any all-time great teams. The bar for entry to that club is at least 100 wins, and not one team is on that kind of pace. But an all-time bad team? The Chicago White Sox have that covered.
In the interests of full disclosure, I wrote the bulk of this column before the White Sox beat the Oakland Athletics 5-1 on Tuesday night. One win wasn't going to save them, after all, whereas a loss would further solidify them in infamy. As luck would have it, the White Sox did indeed earn the W, but the 21-game losing streak that preceded it lives on in spirit.
The anatomy of the White Sox's streak is all entrails and gizzards. They tied for the longest skid in American League history, trailing only the 1961 Philadelphia Phillies' 23 straight losses for the MLB record. They were outscored 136 to 49, an average of 4.
1 runs per game. Lest anyone forget, these White Sox were 40 games under .500 when this skid began.
They could have been kicked out of MLB even then—if only...
but more on that later—and it would have been no great loss. At 28-88, the White Sox are on pace for 123 losses. At best, they are one of the worst teams in Major League Baseball history.
At worst, they are the worst. The 2024 White Sox Are Uniquely Terrible Granted, the White Sox's .241 winning percentage is "only" the 10th-worst in MLB history dating back to 1876.
And even if they do lose 123 games, the all-time record will still belong to the 1899 Cleveland Spiders, who lo.