Chicago White Sox facing a bleak present and a long road back to relevance

Just three years ago, the Chicago White Sox were the darlings of Major League Baseball. They were coming off an AL Central title in 2020, with an ascending core under club control and an executive of the year in Rick Hahn running the show. The arrow was pointing up on the South Side, with World Series aspirations and hopes for a long window of contention.

Today, the White Sox are the worst team in baseball.

“We knew that it was going to be a challenge to play consistent winning baseball. And I say winning in terms of a wins and losses standpoint,” general manager Chris Getz told Yahoo Sports this week. “It’s just the reality of it: A lot of things have to work in our favor.”

Things have definitely not worked in Chicago’s favor lately. After a 101-loss season last year, the Sox have gotten off to a miserable start to 2024 and currently hold the worst record in MLB, sitting at 3-15 through three weeks of play. The team’s offense is historically bad; they’re averaging 2.11 runs per game and have been shut out in six of their first 18 games.

One of the points of emphasis under manager Pedro Grifol was supposed to be for his team to be fundamentally sound and do the little things well. But that hasn’t materialized in the early going, with missed cutoff throws, uncompetitive at-bats and mental mistakes. There has already been a team meeting to discuss the collective performance and sloppy play.

“I just think guys are pressing,” Grifol said of the team’s early-season struggles. “They really care. They want to turn this around. They want to produce and be a part of the solution and part of the turnaround.”