White Sox disintegrate from within on the way to historic 121st defeat

When Casey Stengal's Mets gathered at Al Lang Field in St. Petersburg, they were just happy to be there, enjoying the Florida sun and looking forward to a new adventure. This team had no baggage or expectations other than to play in 162 games.

Unlike the Mets, who expanded in 1962, the White Sox were already considered to be at rock bottom this year and were believed to improve on their previous record of 61-101 in 2023. But entering the final week of the season with six games remaining, they have tied the record of 120 losses. Their next loss, possibly on Tuesday to the Los Angeles Angels, would give them the distinction of being the worst team since 1900.

Both GM Chris Getz and now-fired manager Pedro Grifol had been optimistic in spring training. Getz praised the IQ of his players and Grifol said the front office “brought in a lot of guys that we thought were talented.” And yet here they are, on the verge of infamy, less than two decades after winning the World Series. How did they get here?

Here are some patterns, events or decisions at both the micro and macro levels that contributed to the embarrassing outcome:

– Injuries forced Grifol and interim manager Grady Sizemore to cobble together makeshift lineups. Yoan Moncada (138), Luis Robert Jr. (60), Eloy Jimenez (45) and Andrew Benintendi (25) – the four best hitters in the Opening Day lineup – missed a combined 268 games. They were available just 53.6 percent of the time, during which they earned a total of $66.4 million, more than half the team's payroll. While injuries are an excuse, they are also a fact.

— Andrew Vaughn is no Jose Abreu. The Sox expected Vaughn to emerge as a cornerstone when age cast doubt on Abreu, who was the team's undisputed leader from 2014 to 2022. The Sox had a 209-175 record over the last three of those seasons and made the playoffs twice, but are 97-221 with Vaughn as their primary first baseman. It's also worth noting that the White Sox have used eight different shortstops over the last two seasons, reflecting the rapid decline of two-time All-Star Tim Anderson. He was never the same player after tearing a ligament in his left hand late in 2022.

– They fired Rick Renteria and failed to hire AJ Hinch as manager four years ago. Hinch helped build the Houston Astros' dynasty before losing his job in a sign-stealing scandal he allowed to happen. He's done a great job with the Detroit Tigers, who are on the verge of returning to the postseason after a nine-year drought. Rick Hahn, the White Sox's general manager from 2013 to 2023, wanted to hire Hinch but was overruled by owner Jerry Reinsdorf, who brought Tony La Russa out of retirement.

— They have clung to an undersized, old-fashioned model in the front office for too long. One could argue that the so-called Moneyball style is not what it seems, but the fact is that they fell behind the Cubs from across town and other teams like the Astros who focused on proprietary algorithms to weed out rateable talent.

– They have been consistently unsuccessful in free agency. The Sox are one of two MLB teams that have never had a nine-figure contract, but they're not the Oakland Athletics. They spend money, but not wisely. The White Sox have been linked to chasing elite free agents like Alex Rodriguez and Manny Machado over the years, but they consistently overspent on a number of second-tier free agents, including Benintendi, Yasmani Grandal, Edwin Encarnacion, Dallas Keuchel, Mike Clevinger, Kendall Graveman, Joe Kelly and Martin Maldonado. Signing Abreu was a rare highlight.

– With increasing losses, talent has steadily migrated from Chicago. The Sox let longtime standout Mark Buehrle leave as a free agent after 2011 and instead signed John Danks to an ill-advised contract extension (five years, $65 million). There never seemed to be a chance they would make a similar move to keep Dylan Cease, who was traded to the Padres last winter, two years before he was a free agent. They made a smart addition by acquiring Eric Fedde from the KBO, then traded him and five others, including new Dodgers closer Michael Kopech, at the trade deadline. The lingering conundrum is the transfer of late-blooming power hitter Jake Burger to Miami in 2023. He has hit 71 home runs in 338 major league games and won't be eligible for salary arbitrage until 2026.

– The farm system has under-supplied the roster. Vaughn, the third pick in the 2019 draft, is a good example. He was selected right after Adley Rutschman and Bobby Witt Jr. (and ahead of Riley Greene, CJ Abrams, Bryson Stott and Corbin Carroll) and has delivered 1.3 WAR in 556 games so far. It's been a long time since the organization has produced winning players like Frank Thomas, Robin Ventura, Ray Durham, Joe Crede, Aaron Rowand and Buehrle. Shortstop Colson Montgomery, a 2021 first-round pick, should arrive next season with a chance to change history. He'll be joined by a wave of young starters, including Hagen Smith, a left-hander from the University of Arkansas who was selected in the first round in 2024. The Sox selected him ahead of proven college hitters Jac Caglianone, JJ Wetherholt and Christian Moore.

– For reasons of loyalty, there have been too many voices in management for too long. Reinsdorf promised Ken Williams' father he would take care of him after the Sox selected Williams, a two-sport player at Stanford, in the 1982 draft. He kept his word, to the detriment of the organization. While Williams made many of the decisions that produced the 2005 championship team, he oversaw the decline from there. Reinsdorf acknowledged this by promoting Hahn to GM in late 2012, but muddied the chain of command by promoting Williams to executive VP. Every decision for the next decade was made with input from the Hahn and Williams camps. Not good.

– There is nothing warm or unpleasant about Guaranteed Rate Field. The White Sox have had a slightly worse record at home than on the road over the past three seasons, including the franchise's worst 16-game losing streak this year. That's not the stadium's fault; it's much better than its image suggests. But Reinsdorf says the team's future in Chicago depends on finding public funding for a new home. “The economics of baseball have completely changed,” Reinsdorf told Crain's Chicago Business before opening day. “At the location we're in now, we can't generate the revenue needed to pay those salaries.”

— Reinsdorf has accepted the team’s downfall. Forbes lists him as the 1,545th billionaire with a net worth of $2.1 billion, up from $1.5 billion in 2020. He's rarely available to the media, watching things from the background rather than interacting with all but a few favored reporters, but 43 years after taking over the team, he still plays a leading role in every major decision. The franchise is a valuable asset on Chicago's underserved South Side, but on-field performance has hit an epic low. He says he'll have something to say at the end of the season. That should be interesting.