White Sox Off to Worst Start in Team’s History

2024 is off to a rough start for the Chicago White Sox who are 6-26 at the beginning of their season. To make matters worse, they are without Luis Robert and Moncada. Eloy Jimenez returned to the lineup in the series vs the Kansas City Royals.

The White Sox’s poor start to the season is their worst in the team’s history. White Sox fans and folks around baseball wonder what is going on with this team. There are many reasons, big and small, as to why this team is off to such a terrible start. However, these are three of the key reasons:

First up, the offense. In 2023, the White Sox offense ranked bottom in the league. For further context, that 61-101 team ended 2023 ranking 29th in the league in runs scored, 30th in walks, and 29th in RBIs.

The result of this turned into a near complete teardown of the offense for 2024 to address the shortcomings at the plate; however, if you were to hold a mirror to this team, it would reflect the same stats at the start of this season for the 2024 White Sox.

This team ranks 30th in the league in runs scored, 30th in Runs batted in, 30th in home runs, and 28th in walks. The 2024 offense averages around two runs per game. The White Sox have a .188 batting average, which is dead last in the majors. It will get worse before it becomes better for this offense given the circumstances of the injury situation of Yoan Moncada and Luis Robert.

Given this, it is no wonder the Sox are one of the few teams in MLB history to get shut out eight times in their first 22 games of the season. Unlike the 2020- 2021 White Sox, this team does not have an identity on offense. The good news is that these are veteran players who have been through slumps, and the expectation is that these players will eventually pick up the offense.

The White Sox pitching staff has seen some bright spots in the rotation. The emergence of Erik Fedde, currently the ace of this rotation as of now, is a welcome sight to see. Fedde was very dominant in the Korean baseball league, and this has translated into his second stint in the MLB.

Garret Crochet, being converted from a reliever to a starting pitcher, started well, but recently it seems teams have adjusted to him and are now hitting him hard, which is the reason his earned run average has skyrocketed. Crochet does lead the team in strikeouts.

Michael Kopech, a starting pitcher who has once again become a bullpen arm after his struggles last season, has seemingly embraced his role. Kopech has now become a guy who can get the Sox multiple innings of relief or get called on to close a game in the ninth. These bright spots are good for a team trying to look at what they have for 2025 and beyond.

However, outside of these players, the pitching staff is also part of the reason this team is off to a historically bad start. The pitching staff ranks only ahead of the Colorado Rockies with an ERA of 5.14. The White Sox have had a lead in many of the games they have lost. They have been unable to consistently nail down the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings to win ball games.

What separates the good teams from the bad teams is late-inning pitching. Having great pitching late in the game is one of the key components of a good team, and the White Sox have shown so far this year that they are not a good baseball team due to the inability to nail down the last three innings of a game.

The White Sox have preached about doing the small things at the start of the season because it was something they struggled with every day back in 2023. Last year there were errors on the defensive side of the ball, mental lapses at bad times, and struggles within the division. In 2024, although the defense has gotten better as of late, the small mistakes at the end of games have tortured this team yet again.

In the series finale vs the twins, Paul Dejong missed an easy would-be inning-ending groundball, which would have seen the Sox escape a bases-loaded jam in the top of the sixth inning. Dejong could not field the ball, which led to a pair of twins scoring and tying the game; the Sox would later lose 10-5 to the wins and get swept by the twins again. This leads to another glaring statistic with the Sox that is a tale as old as time itself, which is struggling to beat the teams within the AL central division.

Last season, the White Sox finished 23-29 vs the Al Central during the 101-loss season. This year, the White Sox are 2-18 in the AL Central division following a second consecutive sweep by the twins and 14.5 games behind the first-place Cleveland Guardians.

The Sox’s inability to defeat teams within this Division will make it much harder to turn the season around, as winning these games could quickly shrink that number down. If the White Sox have any hope of saving this season, this is an area that must be approved on.

The White Sox enter the month of May 6-26 with the Cardinals, Rays, and Guardians coming up.