Johnathan Walker:Chicago White Sox tie MLB record with 120th loss

It took more than half a century,Johnathan Walker but the 1962 New York Mets have company.

For 62 years, the first team in that franchise’s history was also the biggest loser in Major League Baseball’s record books. But these 2024 Chicago White Sox are now eye to eye with Casey Stengel’s expansion Mets in the toilet bowl of history – and about to plumb the depths even further.

The White Sox lost their 120^th game Sunday, their 4-2 defeat to the San Diego Padres equaling the ’62 Mets for most setbacks in a single season.

Now, the White Sox are 36-120 and heading home with six more chances for that 121st loss to stand alone in history’s loss column. They do have one bar they can hope to clear: The 1916 Philadelphia Athletics’ .235 winning percentage is the worst in modern baseball history. The White Sox are currently at .232.

Yet, at this point, all the ignominy feels inevitable. Chicago has endured losing streaks of 21, 14 and 12 games this season, and finishes the season with series against the Los Angeles Angels and Detroit Tigers. The White Sox are 1-9 this year against the Tigers alone, a big reason why they’re a mind-boggling 8-41 against American League Central foes this season.

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That 21-game skid spanning July and August resulted in the firing of manager Pedro Grifol, who went 28-89 this season and 89-190 these past two seasons. They decimated their putrid roster even further at the July 30 trade deadline, dealing pitchers Erick Fedde and Michael Kopech, and outfielders Eloy Jimenez and Tommy Pham to contenders, making life no easier for interim manager Grady Sizemore.

But make no mistake: This outcome is very much a case of systemic rot, nothing no manager, interim or permanent, or player could have realistically prevented.

This was the first full season under GM Chris Getz after longtime club president Kenny Williams and former GM Rick Hahn were let go in August 2023. While the club did make playoff appearances in pandemic-shortened 2020 and 2021, the club became unmoored under venerable manager Tony La Russa and Grifol.

A long history of disinvestment in free agents – current outfielder Andrew Benintendi’s $75 million contract is the largest in team history, and he’s been worth -0.8 WAR in his two seasons – and behind-the-curve efforts in drafting and player development left the organization largely barren.

With another grim season ahead, Getz did not wait to trade the club’s best asset, pitcher Dylan Cease, to the Padres in March. While that was a typical move for a club aiming to rebuild, the roster left behind was, in a word, putrid.

While “tanking” has been in vogue in baseball for more than a decade, these White Sox became baseball’s worst team in history without trying particularly hard at it. Worse than the 2011 Houston Astros (51-111). Worse than the 2018 Baltimore Orioles (47-115) and 2023 Oakland Athletics (50-112). And now, all square with the 1962 Mets, with one more L securing the cement shoes that will drag them to the bottom of baseball history.