The Chicago White Sox are so bad that relief pitcher Michael Kopech won nearly 40 games in the standings when he was traded to the Dodgers a week ago.
They're so bad that the Dodgers ruled out Miguel Vargas as their leadoff hitter even though he's hitting .115 in seven games with his new team and has a .195 career average.
However, Vargas had to suffer only six losses during Chicago's 21-game losing streak.
Even after snapping the losing streak Tuesday, the White Sox are so bad that they could finish with the worst record of any team since 1900. Their .241 winning percentage (28-88) is level with the two teams considered the worst: the 1916 Philadelphia Athletics, who finished at .235 (36-117), and the 1962 New York Mets, who finished at .250 (40-120) in their expansion season.
The White Sox are so bad that manager Pedro Grifol's record was 100 games below .500 (89-189) in less than two seasons through Monday's games. Perhaps Grifol shouldn't worry too much: The managers of the 1916 A's and 1962 Mets were Connie Mack and Casey Stengel, respectively, both enshrined in the Hall of Famers.
Grifol can't help but worry, though. The 21-game losing streak tied the American League record set by the 1988 Baltimore Orioles, whose ineptitude is particularly shocking considering Hall of Famers Cal Ripken Jr. and Eddie Murray played every game that season.
The White Sox avoided the MLB-record 23-game losing streak set by the 1961 Philadelphia Phillies. And, yes, the Phillies also had a Hall of Famer in pitcher Robin Roberts, whose 1-10 record was an outlier in a 19-year career that included six straight 20-win seasons.
Forgive Grifol for not asking if he has a Hall of Famer somewhere on his roster. He's consumed by defeat.
“We talk about it every day, everyone knows what it is,” he said Monday. “It’s 21 in a row, it’s horrible, it’s painful, it hurts, whatever.”
Below is a list of teams that lost at least 20 games in a row in a season:
— 1961 Phillies, 23 straight: His streak lasted most of August, and the Phillies finished with a 47-107 record in 35-year-old manager Gene Mauch's second season. Mauch righted the ship in 1962, and the Phillies posted winning records in each of his next six seasons.
— 1988 Orioles, 21 in a row: With Ripken at shortstop and Billy Ripken at second base, manager Cal Ripken Sr. was fired after the Orioles started the season with an 0-6 record. However, the losses did not stop, and their first win did not come until April 29. They finished with a 54-107 record.
— White Sox 2024, 21 straight: Until Tuesday's 5-1 win over the Oakland Athletics, the last time the White Sox had won was July 10 against the Minnesota Twins. The pre-1900 major league record for futility belongs to the 1889 Louisville Colonels, who lost 26 straight games during a season with a 27-111 record.
—Montreal 1969 Expos, 20 in a row: Mauch presided over another historic losing streak, this time from May 13 to June 7 in the Expos' first MLB season. Future Angels general manager Bill Stoneman was the team's ace, though he suffered defeat five times during the streak. The Expos finished 52-110.
— Athletics in 1943 and 1916, 20 consecutive: Mack had a troubled August in 1943, losing 24 of the last 25 games of the month. Mack was 80, but he lasted another seven seasons before retiring, having played a record 7,755 games and won five World Series. Mack was 53 when he endured a 1916 season in which the A's never won more than two games in a row.
— 1906 Boston Americans, 20 in a row: May was a disastrous month for the Americans, who changed their name to the Red Sox after the 1907 season. The losing streak began on May 1 and did not end until May 25. Five losses went to the 39-year-old Cy Young, who led the American League with 21 losses, but he rebounded to record 60 wins over the next three years. Player-manager Jimmy Collins, another Hall of Famer, left the team on July 1 and went from revered to despised in Boston. The Americans finished with a record of 49-105-1.
