The White Sox Are The Most Disappointing Team In Baseball

Yasmani Grandal #24 of the Chicago White Sox is helped to his feet by White Sox training staff and a coach after he was injured on a play at home plate during the sixth inning against the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field on August 20, 2022 in Cleveland, Ohio. — (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)

The Chicago White Sox came into the MLB season with plans at making a run for the American League pennant.

Now, they will be lucky to even make the playoffs.

The season is officially turning into a freefall for the White Sox after getting swept by the Diamondbacks in a three-game series at home.

Their record is 63-65 and they sit five games behind the Cleveland Guardians for first in the AL Central.

Also, Chicago is even further back in the AL Wild Card race.

They are six games out of the final Wild Card spot.

Even though they are far from officially being eliminated the White Sox have shown nothing that would make anyone think they can make a run.

They have lost nine of their last 11 games and just look defeated.

Starting pitching was expected to be one of their strengths heading into the season.

But, Lance Lynn and Lucas Giolito have not been good this season.

Lynn carries a 3-5 record with a 5.00 ERA, while Giolito has a 5.14 ERA and 1.50 WHIP.

Both pitchers were Cy Young contenders last season but have not been able to duplicate their success from 2021.

The White Sox bullpen has also taken a step back from last season.

Their bullpen ERA of 4.14 ranks 22nd in the MLB.

Last season, the White Sox ranked fifth in the MLB in team ERA with 3.73.

But, this year they are 20th with a team ERA of 4.04.

Hitting Woes

The White Sox have been carried in recent years by their ability to hit the baseball.

This year they do not have a single player with at least 15 home runs.

Part of that is due to their injuries, all of their starters except Jose Abreu have missed at least 20 games.

Abreu remains the team’s best hitter but he is not driving the ball.

Very interesting Jose Abreu interview before the game, as he always is. He talked a little bit about his season: "This probably hasn’t been my best season, but I still believe in the things I can do and how I can perform. I know I can perform at a really high level."

— Scott Merkin (@scottmerkin) August 27, 2022

He has 14 home runs in 481 at-bats.

As a team, Chicago has 106 home runs on the year which is the fourth worst in the MLB.

That is hard to overcome.

Luis Robert, Tim Anderson, Yoan Moncada and Eloy Jimenez all have played less than 90 games.

Robert and Jimenez especially can never stay healthy and that is causing problems to the White Sox lineup that counts on them to hit in the middle of the order.

The White Sox have even been a terrible fielding team this season.

Their fielding percentage is .983 which is 28th in the MLB.

It just seems like this team can do nothing right.

Their manager, Tony La Russa, could be out of a job by season’s end.

To miss the playoffs with the way the White Sox are constructed means there have to be changes made within the organization.