The season just started, and it’s already over
Dear reader, it is April 15 and the Chicago White Sox are the worst team in baseball. Even worse than the Miami Marlins, who employ former White Sox Avisaíl García, Jake Burger and Tim Anderson.
Worse than the Colorado Rockies, who haven’t tried to field a competitive team since before masking was a thing.
Worse than the Kansas City Royals, who seem to be our favorite team to steal from. But at least unlike the other three teams mentioned, the Royals are young, fun and winning to start the season, sitting in first place in the AL Central.
At the beginning of the season, I said the White Sox would lose 102 games, and that now feels like more credit than they deserve. Luis Robert Jr. is weeks away from a return, Yoán Moncada has potentially played his last game for the team and Eloy Jiménez is set to return from the IL — but how long will he be back before having to go on the list again?
And that’s honestly just the tip of the iceberg with the team. Oscar Colás was called up for a single pinch-hit at-bat. José “Popeye” Rodríguez (also a victim of a weird call-up, in 2023, when he spent a week in uniform only to pinch-run, once) was designated for assignment earlier this month and then traded to the Philadelphia Phillies for Jerry Reinsdorf’s favorite player: cash considerations. And there’s more, from an abuser re-signed to a manager mangling the language, all under a complete lack of competency and urgency from the top of the team to the 26th man.
At this point in time, it’s very difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel. The next wave of prospects for this team that will actually matter is at least a season away from truly making an impact on the major league level. The ones that are closer aren’t gamechangers, and more than likely the front office feels that anything more than a September call-up is a waste of precious service time.
The most positive things about this team are Garrett Crochet’s potential development into a top starter (he’s only three career starts in, so we will wait to see what happens) and a milkshake that you can only get in the club seats despite everyone wanting a chance to taste it.
So during this horrible season, be sure to keep an eye on our Race to the Bottom series and the Futility Watch at the end of each recap, as the only team the White Sox will be chasing this year in October will be the ghosts of past failure.