SI:AM | White Sox Lose Again as Historically Terrible Start Continues

They’re getting their teeth kicked in almost every night.

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I can’t believe there’s a more depressing team in baseball than the A’s.

In today’s SI:AM:

🌟 The loaded 2024 QB class
👂 What we’re hearing about the draft
🏆 Justice for Reggie Bush

They’re a total disaster

Through eight-and-a-half innings on Tuesday night against the Minnesota Twins, it looked as though the Chicago White Sox would do something rare: win a game. But after a ninth-inning rally by the Twins, the game ended as most games have for the White Sox this season—with a loss.

Chicago took a 5–2 lead in the eighth inning on a two-out, two-run single by Andrew Benintendi. Trevor Larnach’s two-run homer with two out in the bottom of the eighth brought the Twins within striking distance, but if Steven Wilson could just shut down Minnesota in the bottom of the ninth, the White Sox would earn a rare victory.

It didn’t pan out that way. Byron Buxton led off the inning with a no-doubt solo homer to tie the game. Wilson got the next batter to pop out but then walked Carlos Santana and allowed a double to pinch hitter Ryan Jeffers, giving the Twins runners on second and third with one out. Wilson did manage to strike out Christian Vázquez for the second out of the inning. But then Alex Kiriloff ripped a single through the right side of the infield that scored the winning run.

With the loss, the White Sox fell to 3–20 on the season. Those three wins have come by a combined four runs. They’ve been shut out eight times, or in more than a third of their games. Times are tough on the South Side.

Chicago is only the fifth team in MLB history to lose at least 20 of its first 23 games, joining the 2022 Cincinnati Reds, the ’03 Detroit Tigers, the 1988 Baltimore Orioles and the ’36 St. Louis Browns. Two of those teams are among the most famously futile clubs in the sport’s history. That Tigers team finished 43–119, the most losses in AL history, and the Orioles endured the longest season-opening losing streak in MLB history (21 games).

The White Sox aren’t just losing lots of games—they’re getting their teeth kicked in most nights. They’ve scored just 50 runs and given up 129. That’s a run differential of -79. The next worst mark in the majors this season is -54 by the Colorado Rockies. The White Sox are just the fifth team in the expansion era to have a run differential worse than -75 through 23 games. The last team to do it was last year’s Oakland Athletics, who had a staggering -102 run differential during that span. You never want to be on a list with the relocation-era A’s.

At the risk of piling on, here are a few more stats that show just how terrible the Sox have been.

• Their team batting average is .192. In the live ball era, only five other teams have hit that poorly in their first 23 games.

• They’ve only scored 50 runs this season, the third-fewest in a team’s first 23 games in the live ball era.

• They rank last in the majors with a team OPS+ of 63. That’s a stat where 100 is average, meaning Chicago is 37% worse than league average.

• They’ve only hit 12 home runs as a team, which is—you guessed it—the fewest in the majors. Marcell Ozuna and Mike Trout are tied for the major league lead with nine each.

Offense has been the White Sox’ main issue, but while the pitching hasn’t been historically bad, it hasn’t been great, either. Chicago’s team ERA is 5.14, third-worst in the majors, but its team FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching) is dead last in the majors at 4.93.

Things aren’t going to get any better for the White Sox any time soon. This roster was never built to compete. The decision to trade star pitcher Dylan Cease to the San Diego Padres before the season signaled Chicago’s intention to bottom out this season. It was the biggest piece of a firesale that began at last year’s trade deadline when the team dealt Lance Lynn, Joe Kelly, Lucas Giolito, Kendall Graveman, Jake Burger and Keynan Middleton. It allowed Tim Anderson, Liam Hendriks and others to leave as free agents. The result was a roster that was thoroughly underwhelming even before two of the White Sox’ best players—Yoan Moncada and Luis Robert Jr.—went down with injuries earlier this month.

The White Sox won’t keep playing this poorly for the rest of the season (that would equate to a record of 21–141), but they’re well on their way to being the worst team in the majors this season.

Thursday’s first round of the NFL draft will feature several QBs.

Kohjiro Kinno/Sports Illustrated

The best of Sports Illustrated

• Conor Orr spoke with some of the top quarterback prospects in this year’s NFL draft for a special digital cover story.

• Orr also looked back at the best quarterbacks taken in each round of the draft.

• Orr polled several NFL front office members about how they think this week’s draft is going to play out. They believe the second round could be full of trades. 

• Here’s what Albert Breer is hearing as the draft approaches.

• Reggie Bush is getting his Heisman Trophy back.

• The NBA admitted referees should have called a foul on the steal that swung Monday’s Knicks-Sixers game.

• The Orioles called up yet another top prospect from their top-ranked farm system. This time it’s outfielder Heston Kjerstad.

The top five…

… things I saw last night:

5. The Rangers’ passing on this shorthanded goal against the Capitals.
4. Mike Trout’s first leadoff homer since 2012.
3. Luka Dončić’s clutch three over James Harden late in the Mavs’ win over the Clippers.
2. Shohei Ohtani’s 450-foot home run. At 118.7 mph off the bat, it was the hardest hit ball of the season.
1. Sergei Bobrovsky’s unbelievable backwards glove save.