White Sox by the numbers: How offensive futility, record losing streaks combined for a 120-loss season

With one week of action left in the 2024 Major League Baseball season, the Chicago White Sox are about to become the worst team in history. They are 36-120, with six games left and having already tied the 1962 Mets with a record 120 losses. Barring a six-game winning streak to end the season, which almost certainly won’t happen, the White Sox will take the mantle. 

Here are some more numbers that summarize the futility of the 2024 White Sox. 

• .220/.278/.339. That’s what the White Sox are hitting as a team. The league-average slash line is .244/.312/.400. The White Sox have a 76 OPS+, which means they are 24% worse than league average at getting on base and hitting for power. 
• Sure enough, the White Sox rank dead last with 127 home runs. Zero players on the team have hit 20 homers this season. 
• They only average 3.07 runs per game. The Rays rank 29th in runs per game at 3.78. 
• The White Sox have been outscored 799-479 this season, giving them a -320 run differential. 
• The team leader in WAR is Erick Fedde, who hasn’t pitched for the White Sox since July 27. 
• The team leader in RBI is Andrew Vaughn with 67. 
• The team leader in runs is Vaughn with 54. 
• Vaughn has been the White Sox’s best hitter this season. He ranks 103rd of 130 in OPS among players qualifying for the batting title. 
• The White Sox rank as the worst defensive team with -83 total zone runs. The Marlins are 29th at -53 while the Brewers and Mariners are tied for first at 46. 
• In FanGraphs’ version of WAR, 29 teams have a positive figure, with the Rockies ranking 29th at 4.1. The leaders are the Diamondbacks at 32.8. The White Sox? -6.8. 
• They are 16-62 on the road. The next fewest road wins this season is 24 (Rockies). The White Sox had previously never lost more than 55 road games. 
• They are 20-58 at home. The next worst team at home is the Marlins at 30-51. The White Sox’s most losses at home before this season was 53 (1970). 
• They are 9-49 since the All-Star break. No team has ever won fewer than 15 games in a full second half (the A’s went 15-61 in both 1915 and 1943). 
• The White Sox’s best month was a tie between May and June. They went 9-19 in both. Their worst? They were 3-22 in July, barely outpaced by their 4-22 August. 
• The three longest losing streaks this season all belong to the White Sox. They’ve lost 21 straight, 14 straight and 12 straight at different points. They’ve also had losing streaks of seven, six and five (twice, with an active losing streak of five right now). 
• Before this season, the White Sox had only suffered losing streaks of at least 12 games three times, so they’ve doubled that figure this season alone. The other three happened in 1924, 1927 and 1967, so a good number of White Sox fans experienced the three longest losing streaks they’ve ever seen.
• Against the rest of the AL Central, the White Sox are 12-41.

Let’s close with a positive that could also serve as a trivia question. The White Sox have a winning record this season against five other teams, believe it or not: The Braves (2-1), Rockies (2-1), Cardinals (2-1), Rays (4-2) and Nationals (2-1).