Something historic is happening during the 2024 season and it isn’t good. The Chicago White Sox currently sit in last place in the American League Central with an MLB worst 35-115 record, a pitiful record that might make them the worst team in MLB history. There are 3 teams on today’s worst 10 list of all time that lost just 111 games in a 162 game season, and the White Sox have already lost more than that many with 2 weeks left to play. So, to find out if they are actually the worst team ever, let’s do a ranking – the 10 worst teams in modern Major League Baseball history going all the way back to the beginning of the modern era. Then, I’ll look at where the White Sox project to finish the season and explain what they will have to do avoid the fate of being the worst team in MLB history. I’ll calculate how many wins they need to not be the worst of all time, and even give my opinion on if they’ll be able to get there or not. The only two rules for this video will be that I won’t put any defunct teams that are no longer in the league, and I won’t repeat the same franchise, so it’s not full of the A’s and Phillies.
#10 - the 2013 Houston Astros (51-111) .315
In their first season in the American League, the Houston Astros did not fair well. They were a team in rebuilding and did have some good young players like Jose Altuve and J.D. Martinez, but neither had hit their prime yet. 21 players made their big league debut that year for the Astros and their big off-season signing Rick Ankiel hit .193. Dallas Keuchel was their Ace in just his second season and he had not found his Cy Young form yet. Other than that, their pitching was awful and they had the worst team ERA in baseball. But, they had a great farm system with players like Carlos Correa and George Springer moving through the system and would become World Series champions in 2017. Of course, that title isn’t considered the cleanest of all time.
#9 – the 2004 Arizona Diamondbacks (51-111) .315
They had just won a World Series 3 years before, but the 2004 Arizona Diamondbacks had zero resemblance to that 2001 Championship Club. They traded away key players like Curt Schilling, Craig Counsell and Junior Spivey. Many of the big bats still in their lineup had down years like Luis Gonzalez, who hit just .259 with 17 homers, a huge dropoff from his 2001 form when he hit .325 with 57 bombs. Their big offseason acquisition, Richie Sexson, had just smashed 45 homers for the BrewCrew in 2003. He was injured almost all season long and hit just 9 homers for Arizona. As a team, the D-Backs hit just 135 homers all season long, the worst in MLB. Their bullpen was atrocious as well and the only starter who had a good year was Randy Johnson, but the run support was so bad, he lost a career high 14 games despite a 2.6 ERA and 2nd place finish for the Cy Young.
#8 – the 2018 Baltimore Orioles (47-115) .290
Back in 2018, the Baltimore Orioles won their first game of the season then went on to lose 20 of their next 26 en route to a god awful 47-115 record. Things got so bad they put Chris Davis, one of the worst hitters in the game at the time, in the lead off spot. He had one of the worst offensive seasons in MLB history, hitting .168 with a -3.3. WAR. The Orioles would’ve likely won at least 3 more games if they replaced him with an average player. Their new free agent pickup, Colby Rasmus, played in just 18 games then quit baseball in the middle of the season. Their bullpen was bad and none of their starters could stay healthy or effective. Former All Star Chris Tillman had an ERA over 10 in 7 starts and hasn’t played since. Their new free agent, Alex Cobb, who signed a 4-year deal for $57 million, went 5-15 with a 4.9 ERA. In fact, 3 starters – Cobb, Andrew Cashner, and Dylan Bundy – each lost at least 15 games. One of their few bright spots, Manny Machado, was hitting .315 with 24 bombs when he was shipped off to Los Angeles.
#7 – the 1932 Boston Red Sox (43-111) .279
In 1932, Boston Red Sox fans had more reason to be depressed than just the economy. They finished the season an incredible 64 games behind the New York Yankees. This was a team that was simply inept across the board and finished the season last in batting average, runs, on-base-percentage, OPS, ERA, complete games, walks and strikeouts. The Red Sox owner Bob Quinn severely under financed the team for years, not necessarily because he was greedy, but because he was broke, and it all came to a head in 1932. The front office had to throw together a team full of borderline MLB players who would play for the league minimum. They did pick up one great hitter in a trade, Dale Alexander, who was hitting .250 for the Tigers. He came over to Boston and hit .372 the rest of the way, winning a batting title. But the pitching staff was awful. Their Ace was Bob Weiland, and he went 6-16 with a 4.51 ERA and almost every other pitcher had an ERA over 5. Fortunately, Tom Yawkey bought the team shortly after the 1932 season and helped turn the franchise around.
#6 – the 1952 Pittsburgh Pirates (42-112) .273
Coming into the 1952 season, the Pittsburgh Pirates had a reputation similar to the one they have today – and it’s not a good one. They were coming off back to back 90 loss seasons and their 1952 roster featured 13 rookies, 4 of whom were still teenagers, along with a lackluster pitching staff. To make matters worse, their star player Ralph Kiner got off to a slow start due to a bad back. They lost 18 of their first 21 games that season and never recovered. Their ace pitcher, 35-year old Murray Dickson, who won 21 games in 1951, led the league in earned runs and home runs given up, and ended up losing 21 games. G.M. Branch Ricksey started to promote more and more youngsters throughout the year and the season became known as “Operation Peach Fuzz.” The Pirates promoted a 20-year old pitcher named Ron Necciail, who became famous for striking out all 27 batters in a minor league game. He went 1-6 with an ERA over 7. The ‘52 Pirates were just terrible across the board, but a few rookies did go on to have great careers like Dick Groat, who won the MVP in 1960
#5 – the 2003 Detroit Tigers (43-119) .265
After losing 106 games and finishing in dead last in 2002, the Detroit Tigers new GM Dave Dombrowski hired local legend Alan Trammel as their new manager. Unfortunately, he would have a monumental task ahead as the product on the field was not upgraded at all; in fact, Dombrowski decided to move on from several veteran players and focus on a youth movement, using a farm system that lacked any genuine big-league ready prospects. Pitching would be a massive problem. The average age in the starting rotation was 26 and it included 20-year old Jeremy Bonderman, a High School draft pick who had never pitched above High A, and the Opening Day starter, Mike Maroth, was completely unproven. The only pitcher with previous success they signed was Steve Avery, who was making a comeback attempt after not pitching for 4 years. The bullpen was equally uninspiring and did not even have one arm strong enough be considered an official closer. Other than the powerful Dmitri Young, the lineup was not much better. It included castoffs from other clubs like Austin Warren and a few young Tigers like Brandon Inge & Ramon Santiago, whose better years were in the future. They started the year on a 9-game losing streak, then after a win, lost 8 more. After a month, it turned out the offense was even worse than the pitching, as the team was hitting around .220. Things never got better for the 2003 Tigers and they lost a franchise record 119 games. After the season, the franchise began to turn around with the acquisition of Ivan Rodriguez and other talented players who, combined with some of the youngsters from that 2003 team like Inge and Santiago, ended up in the World Series in 2006.
#4 – the 1904 Washington Senators (38-113) .252
Today they’re known as the Minnesota Twins and one piece of their team’s history they’d like to leave in D.C. is the 1904 season when the Senators lost 113 games out of just 151, an embarrassing .252 winning percentage. The Senators had been a middle of the road club for a while, but their real downfall began in 1902 when their star player, one of the best hitters in game and future Hall of Famer Ed Delahanty died after he was kicked off a train for being drunk and disorderly then somehow ended up at the bottom of Niagra Falls. Whether he fell accidentally or committed suicide was never officially determined. Around this time, the team had no proper owner and the league was forced to take over ownership. The team was finally purchased just before the season in 1904, and new ownership had quickly scrape together enough players to field a team on Opening Day. There were no real threats in a lineup and during an era when batting averages were much higher, their best hitter was Jake Stahl, who hit just .262 and led the league in strikeouts. As a team, they hit just .227, an incredibly low average even by today’s standards. The Senators were also dead last in the league with just 10 home runs as an entire team, an incredibly low number even for 1904. Their pitching was also abysmal and they had the worst ERA in the league and were, simply put, an unmitigated disaster. With more time to regroup and organize the roster, ownership improved the team and in 1905, they went 64-87 and made it out of the basement, finishing ahead of the St. Louis Browns.
#3 – the 1962 New York Mets (40-120) .250
Although the 1962 New York Mets were definitely terrible, at least they had a good excuse as it was their inaugural season as a brand new expansion team in Major League Baseball. However, they could’ve been a lot better if upper management weren’t more concerned about signing washed up former Dodger and Yankee players as gate attractions rather than signing real up and coming talent. In addition to bringing in 72-year old legendary manager Casey Stengal, they also signed ex-Dodgers Roger Craig, Don Zimmer, and Charlie Neal along with several former Yankees, most of whom were past their prime. Veterans signed to the ‘62 Mets included Richie Ashburn, 35 years old, Gene Woodling, 39, and Gil Hodges, 38. They had some youngsters too, but none who had real MLB talent and they got off to a 9-game losing streak to start the year. The rotation was abysmal and the first 3 starters lost at least 19 games each. The 4th man in the rotation, Bob Miller, went 1-12. There was another Bob Miller in the bullpen who had an ERA over 7. The defense was even worse and committed 210 errors. The offense had only one serious threat, former Pirate outfielder Frank Thomas, who hit .266 with 34 homers but the Mets still finished last in the league with a .240 batting average. They lost an MLB record at the time 120 games.
#2 – the 1935 Boston Braves (38-115) .248
One of the worst teams in the history of Major League Baseball, The 1935 Boston Braves, lost 115 games out of just 153, good enough for a .248 winning percentage. This is the team that will always be remembered for signing an old and washed up Babe Ruth to play in his final MLB season as assistant manager with hopes of eventually becoming manager. He was no longer effective as a player apart from one glorious day in which he crushed 3 home runs, bringing the crowd at Pittsburgh to their feet. Ruth retired by June 1st and was never offered the managerial position. As for the rest of the 1935 team, many of them had returned from 1934 and simply had terrible seasons. Starting pitcher Ed Brandt, for instance, was decent in 1934, going 16-14 with a 3.53 ERA. In 1935, his ERA ballooned 5 to and his record was 5-19. Starter Ben Cantwell went 4-25, an abysmal record but a lot of it was due to terrible run support. The Braves were last in the league in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, hits and doubles.
#1 – the 1916 Philadelphia A’s (36-117) .235
The Philadelphia A’s were in the World Series in 1913 and 1914. Then, in 1915, they lost 109 games and finished in dead last. In 1916, they were the worst team in the history of the game and their win-loss percentage remains the worst in modern MLB history. What in the hell happened? A big factor in this historic collapse was the Federal League, a new organization that entered into Major League status around this time and began to raid existing N.L. and A.L . clubs for talent. They offered big money and Philadelphia A’s manager and part-owner Connie Mack refused to match those offers, instead allowing the “prima-donnas” as he called them leave the team and go join the Federal League. Veteran starter Eddie Plank jumped to the Federal League and won 21 games with a 2.08 ERA in 1915. Mack decided to go ahead and perform a full-fledged rebuild and began to sell off more great players like Home Run Baker and Eddie Collins. By 1916, the team no longer resembled the 1914 World Series team. The average age in the pitching staff was just 23 and they had the worst team ERA in baseball by far at 3.92. Offensively, they brought in some old veterans like 41-year old Nap Lajoie, who had his worst season before retiring. Their defense was a joke, literally, as their infield was referred to as the $10 infield. They made 314 errors, averaging more than 2 per game. Rookie shortstop Whitey Witt made 78 all by himself. Despite the horrific season, Connie Mack stayed on as manager and they eventually had another dynasty, winning World Series titles in 1929 and 1930.
And now that brings us to the 2024 Chicago White, who just won their 35th game of the season and their current record is 35-115 with 12 more games to play. If the season ended today, they would have the worst win-loss percentage in MLB history at .233, worse than the 1916 Philadelphia Athletics. So, the question is, do they have a chance to avoid that fate and finish with at least a win-loss percentage above .235?
In order to do that, they would have to finish with at least 39 total wins. A 39-123 record would still break the record for the most losses in a season ever, breaking the 120 loss mark set by the 1962 Mets, but it would give them a .241 winning percentage, which wouldn’t be the worst of all time. So, they need to go 4-8 the rest of the way, a tall task for this team. To avoid the most losses of all time, they need to go 8-4 the rest of the way, a near impossibility based on what we’ve seen so far in 2024.
So, it looks like their fate is almost certain – the Chicago White Sox will break the 1962 New York Mets record and lose more than 120 games in 2024, but they have a chance to at least win 4 more games and avoid the worst win-loss percentage of all time. My prediction is they’ll fall just short in that goal as well and the 2024 Chicago White Sox at the end of this season will be the worst team in MLB history. Let me know if you’re watching this video before the season ends if you agree or disagree with that assessment, and if you’re watching after the season, was I right? And did the White Sox end up as literal the worst team in modern MLB history?
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