White Sox situation is even worse than it seems
And has been for years
Sure, the entire baseball world knows that the White Sox are the worst team in modern major league history (forget the percentages, total losses are what people remember), but dig into the numbers a bit and 121 losses are just the little bitty tippy-tip of the iceberg.
Actually, we don’t have to dig into the numbers, because Baseball-Reference has done it for us. Scroll down far enough in their MLB team stats pages and you get to a position-by-position analysis of Wins Above Average. That’s average, not replacement, so the numbers are based on a hypothetical 81 wins rather than 47 or so, but the order of finish remains the same.
As you’d imagine, this year’s Sox results are abysmal. But it turns out they were even pretty damned awful not only last year, with 101 losses, but 2022, with 81 — though that was in large part due to an incredibly weak schedule. It’s probably just as bad further back, but one can only take so much torture.
In the past three years, only three individual position Sox seasons total have resulted in a non-pitching position being above the mid-point of teams and only two of those were more than marginally above; one each on 2022 and 2023.
Want a look? OK, here’s a list with the WAA score, MLB ranking, and primary player(s) at that position:
CATCHER
2024 -3.4 (30th) Korey Lee, Martín Maldonado
2023 -3.3 (30th) Yasmani Grandal, Seby Zavala
2022 -2.2 (26th) Yasmani Grandal, Reese McGuire
FIRST BASE
2024 -2.0 (23rd) Andrew Vaughn
2023 -1.6 (24th) Andrew Vaughn
2022 +1.1 (7th) José Abreu (one of the two successes)
SECOND BASE
2024 -2.2 (28th) Nicky Lopez, Lenyn Sosa
2023 -2.1 (28th) Elvis Andrus, Lenyn Sosa
2022 -1.4 (23rd) Josh Harrison, Leury García
THIRD BASE
2024 -3.7 (30th) Lenyn Sosa, Miguel Vargas
2023 -0.7 (19th) Yoán Moncada, Jake Burger
2022 -1.0 (22nd) Yoán Moncada
SHORTSTOP
2024 -1.7 (28th) Paul DeJong, Nicky Lopez
2023 -3.9 (30th) Tim Anderson, Elvis Andrus
2022 +0.9 (18th) Tim Anderson, Elvis Andrus (a plus, but not a Top 15)
LEFT FIELD
2024 -3.2 (28th) Andrew Benintendi
2023 -2.2 (29th) Andrew Benintendi
2022 -1.4 (22nd) AJ Pollock, Andrew Vaughn
CENTER FIELD
2024 -1.2 (25th) Luis Robert Jr.
2023 +2.4 (4th) Luis Robert Jr., Adam Engel (the other good placement)
2022 +0.1 (18th) Luis Robert Jr., Adam Engel
RIGHT FIELD
2024 -3.0 (29th) Gavin Sheets, Dominic Fletcher
2023 -4.3 (30th) Gavin Sheets, Oscar Colás
2022 -2.4 (28th) Gavin Sheets, Adam Engel
And those last three added up to dead last this year, 28th in 2023 and 26th in 2022
DESIGNATED HITTER
2024 -3.1 (30th) Eloy Jiménez
2023 -1.8 (28th) Eloy Jiménez
2022 -0.6 (13th) Eloy Jiménez (the top half squeaker)
Pinch-hitting also ran 30th, 29th and 23rd.
BUT WHAT ABOUT PITCHING?
Pitching definitely fared better, with starters above average all three years and relievers doing well in 2022, just before the move to the most expensive bullpen in history. Too many names to list, but you’ll remember the key ones.
STARTERS
2024 +5.1 (6th) Garrett Crochet, Erick Fedde
2023 +1.8 (15th) Dylan Cease
2022 +4.2 (9th) Dylan Cease, Johnny Cueto
RELIEVERS
2024 -2.0 (28th) None worth noting
2023 -4.0 (25th) Many
2022 -1.4 (13th) Liam Hendriks
ALL OF WHICH MEANS?
If you total all the badness, the Sox came in at -5.0 and 20th place in 2022, -21.5 and 28th place in 2023, and, of course, dead-last at -25.5 this year. So all the losses are no freaky ill fortune.
Best of luck, if you’re hopeful for the future. You’ll notice Baseball-Reference doesn’t have a category for “Owner.” We all have a very good idea where the White Sox would end up on that list.