Rooting for The World’s Worst Team

Somehow the 2024 Chicago White Sox were a professional baseball team. To save you about 15 minutes of rambling, the 2024 White Sox were horrible, a never before-seen-colossal failure thrown out onto a baseball field 162 times. As a long time White Sox fan, I’m accustomed to watching bad baseball. But they weren’t just bad this season: they set the MLB Record for most losses in a single season, losing 121 games. They were the modern day bad news bears of professional baseball.
Looking back just a few years ago, the Sox were one of the hottest young teams in the league, a talented group headlined by the electric shortstop Tim Anderson; to his right, former MVP Jose` Abreu; and young up-and-comers in Luis Robert Jr, Eloy Jimenez, Yoan Moncada, and Andrew Vaughn. These players formed a skilled hitting core. They were complemented by the brilliant pitching staff: a resurgent Lance Lynn, a breakout season from Carlos Rodon, and two young fireballers in Dylan Cease and Michael Kopech. The bullpen featured one of the most dominant closers in all of baseball, Liam Hendricks.
In other words, the team was built for both the present and the future.
Yet, somehow the Sox managed to flush away all of that potential. Specifically, they hired Tony Larussa, who had not managed a team in over 10 years. The results were no surprise: an 81-year-old man isn’t a great fit in the modern game. Health problems and ineptitude led to his sacking half way through his second season. Worse, he was at the forefront of the decision to move Andrew Vaughn to first base over Jose Abreu (My favorite player), the face of the franchise for a better part of a decade. In 2022, the White Sox would underperform, going 81-81. This was followed up by an incredibly disappointing season in 2023. Aside from Luis Robert, every star on the team slumped. Anderson especially had a rough season. Things got so bad for the shortstop that he was borderline unplayable in July and early August. In truth, this would be Anderson’s final season with the Sox, as well as many others. After Anderson was traded to the Marlins, Dylan Cease left to become a Cy Young contender in San Diego; Liam Hendricks joined Boston after having Tommy John surgery during the 2023 season, his final one with the White sox.
So going into 2024, I did not expect the White Sox to be any good. They had an inexperienced and unproven roster, plus early injuries to Yoan Moncada and Luis Robert.
But what happened next–oh my.
2024 began with most of theSox’s essential bats out of the line up. Needing to make a move for another bat (and, in typical Sox fashion), they brought in 36- year-old Tommy Pham. As you can guess, the offense was awful, and I mean awful. There are high school teams that could hit better than the 2024 White Sox. They were so bad that they got shut out in eight of their first 22 games. In total, teams shut them out 19 times. Hitters weren’t just slumping. They appeared incapable of actually seeing a baseball.
The end of season stats tell the story. The team as a whole finished dead last in batting average, OBP, and slugging percentage. They were not last in everything. The team had an average O.B.P(On Base Percentage) of .278, batting average of .221, and O.P.S of .618 – all of which were bottom three in the league. 2024 was so bad for the White Sox that the aforementioned Pham led the team in batting average for the season. Pham joined the team in July!
No two players better showcase the ineptitude of the bats than left fielder Andrew Bennintendi and catcher Martin Maldanado. Starting with Bennentendi, he entered the year with the expectation to be one of the better hitters on the team after a disappointing 2023 season. To his credit, he was one of the most consistent hitters on the team. But a .229 batting average and 20 home runs are still subpar. This looks even worse when considering the fact that he is the highest paid player in franchise history. While Bennintendi is not a bad player and should return next year, it’s not unrealistic to say that he is being kept solely because of his contract. Looking over at Maldanado, there are zero positives to take away from his season. It may feel cliche to say, but he may very well be the worst player I have ever seen put on a White Sox uniform. In 48 games with the club he boasted a .119 batting average, a .230 slugging percentage, and .403 OPS to go along with 51 strikeouts in 135 at-bats. There was quite literally not a single positive to take away from his time in the south side, as his once spectacular defensive ability also deteriorated as he had a Defensive WAR of -1.3 (Which is very bad for those who don’t know). It’s hard to put into perspective just how bad Maldanado was in 2024, but White Sox legend Ozzie Guillen said it best,”It’s hard to bat .300, it’s even harder to bat 0.90. When you bat .300 you play everyday, but when you bat 0.090 you shouldn’t be playing at all.”
And that sums up the White Sox’s entire 2024 campaign: they should not have been playing at all.