Chicago White Sox

A woman who was shot while attending a Chicago White Sox game at Guaranteed Rate Field on Aug. 25, 2023, is reportedly suing the team and the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority.

The Associated Press reported Tuesday she is seeking more than $50,000 in damages, personal injuries and losses and alleges the team and agency did not enforce the stadium rule prohibiting firearms.

The Chicago Police Department released a statement at the time saying a 42-year-old woman was hospitalized but in "fair condition" after she "sustained one gun-shot wound to the leg." A 26-year-old woman refused medical attention after she "sustained a graze wound to the abdomen."

According to the statement, "CPD responded immediately and deployed additional resources while coordinating with White Sox security to maintain the safety of those who were in attendance or working at the game. At no time was it believed there was an active threat."

Police said in September 2023 it was not clear whether the gunfire was from inside or outside Guaranteed Rate Field, per the AP.

Chicago Police spokesperson Nathaniel Blackman said Tuesday the investigation is still ongoing.

Around the time of the incident, the White Sox also released a statement saying it was "unclear to investigators" whether the shots came from inside or outside the stadium:

https://t.co/V06IBRPoUQ pic.twitter.com/gwMOzmzTjE

— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) August 26, 2023

However, the lawsuit alleges a gun was allowed into the stadium.

The game between the White Sox and Oakland Athletics was not delayed or postponed as a result of the incident, although a postgame concert was canceled.

The Chicago White Sox made some unfortunate history after losing to the Detroit Tigers by the final score of 9-4 on Sunday.

FINAL: Tigers 9, #WhiteSox 4

— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) August 25, 2024

The White Sox suffered their 100th loss of the season, becoming the second-fastest team in MLB history to reach the century mark in the loss column (via ESPN). The 1916 Philadelphia A's (who went 29-100-1 in their first 130 games) are the only team to reach 100 losses in fewer games.

Chicago is in danger of setting the modern major league record for most losses in a season, which is held by the 1962 New York Mets with 120 defeats.

"We have been talking about it all year," White Sox outfielder Andrew Benintendi said, per ESPN. "It's beating a dead horse at this point. We are not where we want to be. [Interim manager Grady Sizemore] said it best: 'Unless you win the last game of the year, it doesn't matter.' So, I think everyone has moved on."

Chicago currently sits at 31-100, meaning that the team will need to finish with a record of 12-19 in order to avoid tying the Mets' loss total.

It's been a dismal season for the White Sox, as they're the only MLB team with fewer than 47 wins. They also own the worst run differential in the majors at minus-276. Chicago was eliminated from the postseason on Aug. 17, representing the earliest elimination in the wild card or divisional era.

The White Sox elimination from playoff contention falls on the earliest calendar date (Aug. 17) in either the Wild Card or Divisional Era.

(h/t @JessicaDBrand) pic.twitter.com/qVdlgD8KMS

— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) August 18, 2024

Pedro Grifol started the season as Chicago's manager, but he was eventually fired on Aug. 8 once the team fell 61 games below .500. He was dismissed after the White Sox recorded a 21-game losing streak, tying the 1988 Baltimore Orioles for the longest in American League history.

Chicago might be able to string together a few victories and avoid the total losses record, as the team is tied for the eighth-easiest remaining strength of schedule in the majors (via FanGraphs).

The White Sox will attempt to end their latest three-game losing streak during their next contest, another matchup with the Tigers on Monday at 8:10 p.m. ET.

A pair of Chicago White Sox stars could be on the move this offseason.

Per USA Today's Bob Nightengale, the White Sox still plan to trade starting pitcher Garrett Crochet, but are also looking to find a deal for center fielder Luis Robert Jr.

"The White Sox still intend to trade Crochet in the offseason, and hope to also move center fielder Luis Robert Jr., who hit two homers on Friday after being in a 5-for-46 skid," Nightengale wrote.

Crochet has had a breakout year in his first season as a starter, recording 176 strikeouts, a 3.61 ERA and a 1.07 WHIP in 25 starts on his way to his first All-Star appearance. The tremendous season made him a hot commodity at this year's trade deadline.

Several teams pursued the 25-year-old, including the Philadelphia Phillies and Los Angeles Dodgers, who had "attractive offers" for Chicago, per The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal. The White Sox instead decided to hold on to Crochet for the rest of the year in hopes of getting an even bigger return this offseason.

The trade market wasn't quite as high for Robert, which led to Chicago keeping him put for now. Robert missed most of April and all of Mat with a hip flexor strain and hasn't had his best season, but Chicago could still get a decent return this offseason.

Robert has 14 homers, 31 RBI, 17 stolen bases and a .209 batting average in 68 games. He's coming off the best season of his career in 2023, when he slugged 38 homers and 80 RBI to go along with a .264 batting average and 20 stolen bases.

If teams are confident Robert will return to that form when he's fully healthy, he could be one of the more sought-after players on the trade market.

The Chicago White Sox were eliminated from postseason contention Saturday night with a 6-1 loss to the Houston Astros.

The loss dropped the White Sox to a 30-94 record. The club remains the only MLB team with fewer than 45 wins on the season.

The White Sox have been eliminated from playoff contention. pic.twitter.com/WtXc9Cfx2Y

— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) August 18, 2024

Here's a look at the updated standings across the league now that the White Sox are officially out of the postseason picture.

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American League 

Leaders

1. New York Yankees, 73-51
2. Cleveland Guardians, 72-51
3. Houston Astros, 66-56

Wild Card

1. Baltimore Orioles, 72-51
2. Minnesota Twins, 70-53
3. Kansas City Royals, 68-55

Outside postseason bubble

1. Boston Red Sox, 64-57
2. Seattle Mariners, 63-61
3. Tampa Bay Rays, 61-61
4. Detroit Tigers, 60-64
5. Toronto Blue Jays, 57-66
6. Texas Rangers, 56-68
7. Los Angeles Angels, 53-69
8. Oakland Athletics, 53-70
9. Chicago White Sox, 30-94 (eliminated from postseason contention)

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National League

Leaders

1. Philadelphia Phillies, 73-50
2. Los Angeles Dodgers, 72-52
3. Milwaukee Brewers, 71-52

Wild Card

1. San Diego Padres, 69-54
2. Arizona Diamondbacks, 69-55
3. Atlanta Braves, 64-58

Outside postseason bubble

1. New York Mets, 64-59
2. San Francisco Giants, 62-63
3. St. Louis Cardinals, 61-62
4. Chicago Cubs, 61-63
5. Cincinnati Reds, 60-63
6. Pittsburgh Pirates, 58-64
7. Washington Nationals, 55-69
8. Colorado Rockies, 45-78
9. Miami Marlins, 45-78

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The White Sox are out of postseason contention earlier than any MLB team last season. In 2023, Oakland Athletics became the first team mathematically eliminated on Aug. 25, while the White Sox were technically in contention until Sept. 11.

With 38 games remaining in the season, the White Sox could win at most 68 games. That would not be enough to win the team a division lead or wild card spot, even if all other teams lose out.

The White Sox's disappointing 2024 season has featured everything from a 21-game losing streak that matched an AL record, to the firing of manager Pedro Grifol and a planned decrease in season ticket prices for 2025.

Now the franchise faces the prospect of another ignoble marker by setting a new record for losses in a single MLB season. The 1962 New York Mets currently hold the record with a 40-120 mark in the team's first season, so the White Sox could set a new standard by going 11-27 or worse over the final stretch of the season.

The White Sox last qualified for the postseason in 2021, when the team lost the AL Division Series to the Houston Astros.

Chicago has only trended away from the postseason since then. The team's 61-101 record in 2023 was the worst franchise mark since its 56-win 1970 campaign, and the 2024 club is on pace to set a new White Sox standard.

The White Sox's path forward is made even more difficult by the fact that the franchise can select no higher than No. 10 in the upcoming MLB draft. Team leadership indicated after firing Grifol that the franchise would look outside of the White Sox for a new manager to lead the team through the upcoming rebuild, per ESPN's Jesse Rogers.

A handful of teams reportedly looked into adding Chicago White Sox starting pitcher Garrett Crochet at last month's trade deadline.

Per The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies both pursued the All-Star starter. According to Rosenthal, both the Phillies and Dodgers' offers to the White Sox were "considered attractive," and Los Angeles pursued Crochet all the way to the last hour.

Ultimately, Chicago opted to hold onto Crochet.

According to Rosenthal, the Dodgers made right-handed prospect River Ryan available for a trade for Crochet, but the White Sox saw concern over his health after he missed the first two months of the season with shoulder soreness. Ryan ultimately had to undergo Tommy John surgery after just four starts for Los Angeles.

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Despite Crochet's age and value, both the Dodgers and Phillies were hesitant to hand over top prospects for him. Rosenthal noted that Philadelphia didn't offer pitcher Andrew Painter, one of the organization's top prospects, and Los Angeles didn't offer Dalton Rushing.

Bleacher Report's Joel Reuter lists Painter as the Phillies No. 2 prospect and Rushing as the Dodgers' No. 2 prospect.

In his first year as a starter, Crochet has recorded 167 strikeouts, a 3.65 ERA and a 1.07 WHIP. He's currently playing on a one-year, $800,000 deal, which is just $60,000 higher than the league minimum. While he's still under club control until 2027, there will likely be plenty of teams looking to bring him over in a trade this offseason.

It wouldn't be a surprise if the Phillies and Dodgers were among those teams.

Even though they didn't get Crochet at the deadline, Los Angeles and Philadelphia still bolstered their pitching staffs before the home stretch of the season. The Dodgers added right-handed starter Jack Flaherty while the Phillies brought in relievers Carlos Estévez and Tanner Banks.

The Chicago White Sox entered Wednesday with a 29-92 record and may threaten the 1916 Philadelphia Athletics for the worst winning percentage (.235, 36-117) in MLB's modern era (1901-present).

And with the team's struggles in mind, the White Sox are lowering 2025 season-ticket prices by an average of 10 percent, per Brooks Boyer (Senior Vice President, Chief Revenue and Marketing Officer) on Wednesday.

"We understand where all the ticket prices are -- whether it's season-ticket prices, secondary market," Boyer said, per the Associated Press. "After looking at that, understanding where we are organizationally, we thought it was important that it's something that we do for our season-ticket holders who have been very loyal to us."

Chicago has been in a freefall since two straight playoff appearances in 2020-2021, going 81-81 in 2022 and 61-101 in 2023. The team entered Wednesday as winners of just two of its last 26 games, a span that includes a 20-game losing streak.

Given how poorly the team has done, the White Sox's attendance figures have taken a hit. Chicago entered Wednesday averaging 18,231 fans per game, the fourth-lowest mark in the majors and only ahead of three teams with historically low attendance figures (Tampa Bay Rays, Miami Marlins, Oakland Athletics). It's Chicago's lowest mark this century.

It's understandable why the White Sox would want to lower the season-ticket prices, both to hopefully entice fans to stay on despite the team's losing and to show an act of good faith. Ultimately, there's really nowhere to go but up at this juncture as the White Sox play out this season and hope for brighter days in the 2025 season, which begins March 27 against the Los Angeles Angels at Guaranteed Rate Field.

Grady Sizemore will replace Pedro Grifol as manager of the Chicago White Sox for the remainder of the season.

The White Sox announced on Thursday that Sizemore has been named their interim manager. They also replaced three coaches from Grifol's staff.

pic.twitter.com/tipA9gwqSW

— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) August 8, 2024

Grifol was fired earlier in the day in the midst of his second season as skipper for the White Sox. He led the team to a 28-89 record at the time of his dismissal, which included an American League record-tying 21-game losing streak from July 10 through Aug. 5.

The White Sox statement announcing Grifol's firing did note they would begin the search for a new manager immediately with the goal of hiring a new full-time skipper after the conclusion of the 2024 season.

Per MLB Network's Jon Morosi, current Miami Marlins manager Skip Schumaker, New York Mets bench coach John Gibbons and Detroit Tigers pitching coach Chris Fetter are among the potential candidates the White Sox will consider.

3 potential White Sox candidates:

Marlins manager Skip Schumaker, whose contract expires this year

Mets bench coach John Gibbons, who was Chris Getz's final MLB manager

Tigers pitching coach Chris Fetter, a strong communicator and @umichbaseball alum@MLBNetwork @670TheScore

— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) August 8, 2024

Grifol was hired by the White Sox in November 2022 after spending 10 seasons as a coach for the Kansas City Royals. Chicago was coming off a solid three-season stretch from 2020 to '22 that included back-to-back playoff appearances in 2020 and 2021.

Things immediately cratered for the White Sox under Grifol. They finished 61-101 in his first season and won 89 out of a possible 279 games before he was fired. His .319 winning percentage is the third-worst in baseball history among managers with at least 279 games.

391 managers have managed at least 279 games.

Pedro Grifol's .319 winning percentage is the third-worst among them. Only John McCloskey (Louisville, 1895-1896; St. Louis, 1906-1908) and Doc Prothro (Philadelphia, 1939-1941) were worse.

— David Salituro (@DavidSalituro) August 8, 2024

Those struggles weren't entirely the fault of Grifol. The organization has been in a state of disarray for years under owner Jerry Reinsdorf.

Per The Athletic's Brittany Ghiroli, the White Sox didn't interview any outside candidates last year after firing team president Kenny Williams and general manager Rick Hahn in August 2023. Chris Getz, who had been Hahn's assistant GM since 2021, was promoted to general manager and senior vice president.

Even though the results at the MLB level have been embarrassing this season, there are signs of hope for the future. They have a top-10 farm system with five top-100 prospects, led by left-handed pitcher Noah Schultz (No. 10 overall).

It wouldn't be a surprise if they climb even higher in the farm-system rankings going into 2025 because they still have Garrett Crochet available to use in a potential trade during the offseason.

It's going to be a multiyear process before the White Sox are fighting for a playoff spot in the AL, but there are reasons to be optimistic. The front office will have to be patient with whomever becomes the new full-time manager because the on-field results won't immediately improve with the roster as presently constructed.

Sizemore will finish out this season for the club. A three-time All-Star as a player, he joined Grifol's staff in January. He previously worked as an intern for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2023.

It seemed inevitable that Chicago White Sox manager Pedro Grifol would be fired during the team's dismal 2024 season, and it happened on Thursday.

Chicago announced Grifol's firing after a 28-89 start to this season, his second as manager of the club.

pic.twitter.com/g3xyqkkx44

— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) August 8, 2024

Grady Sizemore was named the interim manager after Grifol's dismissal.

The move comes two days after the White Sox snapped a 21-game losing streak with a 5-1 win over the Oakland Athletics. The streak was tied with the 1988 Baltimore Orioles for the longest in AL history.

Chicago's winning ways didn't last long, as it lost the series finale 3-2 to the A's on Wednesday. The White Sox led 2-0 going into the bottom of the seventh, but Touki Toussaint allowed three runs on two hits and one walk in 0.1 innings of work.

Grifol's first year as manager did not go as hoped, as the White Sox went 61-101 in 2023 and finished with a losing record for the first time in four seasons. Despite the difficult start to his first manager job, it was reasonable for Chicago to hope for a quick turnaround.

After all, Grifol had plenty of other experience to fall back on. He worked for the Seattle Mariners for 13 years as a coach, scout and manager before joining the Kansas City Royals for 10 seasons in a variety of roles.

Kansas City won the 2015 World Series when he was part of the staff, and he eventually elevated to bench coach before the White Sox hired him.

Yet the 2024 campaign couldn't have started worse for the American League Central team.

Chicago started 3-22 and then proceeded to lose 14 straight in May and June. Somehow, that wasn't the low point for a team that also traded away Erick Fedde, Tommy Pham, Michael Kopech, Paul DeJong, Tanner Banks and Eloy Jiménez.

The National League record for consecutive losses belongs to the 1900 Philadelphia Phillies with 23 in a row. Then there was the 1889 Louisville Colonels, which lost 26 straight games while playing in the American Association.

It was clear the losing streak and historical stakes were wearing on the White Sox.

"At the end of the day, we've lost 20 in a row. That's painful. That sucks," Grifol told reporters after a 20th straight defeat. "We've just got to find a way to put that behind us and go out there and be professionals and do what we have to do tomorrow."

USA Today's Bob Nightengale reported on Aug. 4 during the streak that team owner Jerry Reinsdorf and general manager Chris Getz met with Grifol and decided not to fire him at the time even though he "could still be fired any day."

Nightengale also listed Miami Marlins manager Skip Schumaker as a leading candidate to become Chicago's next manager.

The position is now open following the decision to fire Grifol.

The 21-game nightmare for the Chicago White Sox is finally over.

Jonathan Cannon threw six innings of one-run ball and Andrew Benintendi hit his 10th home run of the season to lead the White Sox to a 5-1 win over the Oakland Athletics on Wednesday, snapping a 21-game losing streak.

The streak was tied for the longest in American League history. The NL record is 23 straight losses, set by the 1961 Philadelphia Phillies.

"It was just really good to get this behind us. I thought we played a clean game today," White Sox manager Pedro Grifol told reporters. "Any time you win it's great. Any time you win when you lose 21 in a row it's even better. I'm proud of these guys."

White Sox Box Score

Lineup

1. 3B Miguel Vargas: 0-2, 1 R, 2 BB
2. 2B Brooks Baldwin: 2-4, 1 R
3. CF Luis Robert Jr.: 1-4, 1 R
4. 1B Andrew Vaughn: 1-4, 1 RBI
5. LF Andrew Benintendi: 2-4, 2 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI
6. DH Lenyn Sosa: 1-4, 1 RBI
7. RF Gavin Sheets: 0-3
8. RF Dominic Fletcher: 0-1
9. C Korey Lee: 0-4
10. SS Nicky Lopez: 0-3

Pitchers

• SP Jonathan Cannon: 6 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K
• RP Dominic Leone: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K
• RP Chad Kuhl: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K
• RP John Brebbia: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K

The teams played the first three innings scoreless before Benintendi hit a two-run shot off Ross Stripling in the top of the fourth. Zack Gelof closed the gap to one run in the bottom half of the inning, but that would be the only run allowed by the White Sox staff.

Sox strike first! pic.twitter.com/O1ZrISmxCs

— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) August 7, 2024

Lenyn Sosa comes through! pic.twitter.com/NXd7riLQKg

— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) August 7, 2024

Cannon gave up six hits and walked two while striking out five batters in his six innings of work before ceding to the bullpen. Dominic Leone, Chad Kuhl and John Brebbia combined for three hitless innings to close things out.

"I think it's just a sigh of relief," Cannon said. "We're all major league players, we got a lot of confidence in ourselves to go out and do our jobs every night. Just wasn't working out for us. Proud we could put it together tonight. It was a team effort all around."

Chicago is 28-88 overall in one of the single worst seasons in MLB history. The White Sox are the only MLB team yet to hit the 40-win mark, let alone the 30-win perch they are yet to reach.

The 1962 Mets hold the record for the most losses in the modern era of MLB with 120. The White Sox are currently on pace to eclipse that mark and have the second-lowest winning percentage since 1900, behind only the 1916 Philadelphia Athletics.

The franchise record for losses is 106, which seems almost certain to fall with ease. That said, for at least one night, this White Sox team found a way to put one in the win column.

The 2024 MLB season isn't likely to produce any all-time great teams. The bar for entry to that club is at least 100 wins, and not one team is on that kind of pace.

But an all-time bad team? The Chicago White Sox have that covered.

In the interests of full disclosure, I wrote the bulk of this column before the White Sox beat the Oakland Athletics 5-1 on Tuesday night. One win wasn't going to save them, after all, whereas a loss would further solidify them in infamy.

As luck would have it, the White Sox did indeed earn the W, but the 21-game losing streak that preceded it lives on in spirit.

The anatomy of the White Sox's streak is all entrails and gizzards. They tied for the longest skid in American League history, trailing only the 1961 Philadelphia Phillies' 23 straight losses for the MLB record. They were outscored 136 to 49, an average of 4.1 runs per game.

Lest anyone forget, these White Sox were 40 games under .500 when this skid began. They could have been kicked out of MLB even then—if only...but more on that later—and it would have been no great loss.

At 28-88, the White Sox are on pace for 123 losses. At best, they are one of the worst teams in Major League Baseball history.

At worst, they are the worst.

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The 2024 White Sox Are Uniquely Terrible

Granted, the White Sox's .241 winning percentage is "only" the 10th-worst in MLB history dating back to 1876. And even if they do lose 123 games, the all-time record will still belong to the 1899 Cleveland Spiders, who lost 134.

But how relevant should baseball's ancient history be under the circumstances?

The Spiders went defunct after 1899, and it wasn't until 1901 that the American League and National League joined forces to form MLB as we know it. In this span, the 2024 White Sox's winning percentage becomes the second-worst ever after the 1916 Philadelphia Athletics.

There's also the matter of the relativity of the White Sox's badness, which is where "standard score" can help. It's a statistic that captures how far from the average a specific data point in a set is. The lower or higher the score, the more of an outlier the point is.

Using winning percentage, here are the teams with the worst standard scores in MLB history:

1. 2024 Chicago White Sox: -3.30
2. 2003 Detroit Tigers: -2.84
3. 1996 Detroit Tigers: -2.80
4. 1962 New York Mets: -2.60
5. 1916 Philadelphia Athletics: -2.59

So, there you go. In the annals of all-time MLB losers, the 2024 White Sox are a singularly pathetic outlier. An utterly non-competitive team in a sea of competitiveness.

Their entire roster is worth 2.0 WAR, a mark otherwise reached by 97 different hitters and 52 different pitchers across MLB. They're threatening to become the first team in 43 years to score fewer than 3.1 runs per game. They're also second-last to the Colorado Rockies in runs allowed, and at least they have Coors Field to blame.

This is no blueprint for success, and least of all when the team in question is incapable of pulling victory from the jaws of defeat:

White Sox fall to 0-16 since the All-Star break and have been swept in 6 straight series. They are 0-65 when behind after 7 innings and 0-71 when behind after 8.

— Scott Merkin (@scottmerkin) August 4, 2024

If ever there was a perfect storm of baseball badness, this is it. And looking back, maybe the only surprising thing is how little time this storm needed to brew.

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There Was Hope Not Too Long Ago. Now There's Not.

Nobody could have predicted the White Sox would be this bad in 2024, least of all anyone who was beholden to them going into the 2022 season.

They went into that year off back-to-back playoff berths, including their first AL Central title in 13 years in 2021. FanGraphs gave them a 5.3 percent chance of winning the 2022 World Series, and they even went second in an MLB.com draft of Fall Classic contenders.

"What happened?" is a question without a straightforward answer. But it's not hard to imagine alternate histories, including one in which White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf didn't bypass his front office in bringing Tony La Russa out of retirement to manage in 2020.

Even getting his club to the playoffs in 2021 wasn't without incident, and he didn't exactly steer a steady (or frankly, sensical) ship as the White Sox slipped to 81-81 in 2022. In all, his tenure was about as big of a flop as any rational person might have predicted.

Again, this wasn't the front office's fault. But it certainly wasn't blameless for the club's broader culture issues, and it paid the price when Reinsdorf fired longtime execs Ken Williams and Rick Hahn the following August.

Then there's the alternate history in which an ultra-talented roster doesn't fall apart.

Between MVP José Abreu, batting champion Tim Anderson and Yoán Moncada, Eloy Jiménez, Luis Robert Jr. and Yasmani Grandal, the makings were there for an elite lineup in 2022. And even with Carlos Rodón gone to San Francisco, the rotation still had Lucas Giolito, Dylan Cease, Lance Lynn and Cy Young Award winner Dallas Keuchel.

Yet out of all those guys, only Cease had a career year in 2022. And of the ones who were still left, only Robert had a career year in 2023.

Even as the White Sox's payroll has gone south like their winning percentage, the bright side should be that trades of Cease, Giolito, Lynn, Jiménez, Erick Fedde, Michael Kopech, Tommy Pham and Paul DeJong have elevated the club's farm system.

And they have...sort of.

Per B/R's Joel Reuter, the White Sox came out of the draft with the No. 7 system in MLB. But first-year GM Chris Getz's trade-deadline haul has been widely panned, with B/R's Kerry Miller only finding it in his heart to give his work a "solid F+."

It's doubtful that the White Sox are going to come together more quickly than it took them to fall apart. And while it's too soon for Getz to be on the hot seat, Pedro Grifol sure seems like a dead man walking as the club's manager.

Most managers just can't disrespect and clash with their players and expect to keep their jobs. Especially not ones whose .318 winning percentage is the third-worst of any manager ever after only Doc Prothro and John McCloskey.

(Editor's Note: Grifol was fired by the White Sox on Thursday.)

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None of This Looks Good for MLB

Though competitive balance has technically gotten better in 2024, the White Sox are emblematic of a problem that's hanging around like Jim Belushi in that old Saturday Night Live sketch.

Along with the Rockies and Miami Marlins, they're one of three teams on pace to lose 100 games this year. That would make this the sixth straight full season with at least three 100-game losers. There was only one such season in the previous 20 years.

It must be tough to be a White Sox fan 😭 @NBCSWhiteSox pic.twitter.com/r4V5v1x8jw

— Athletics on NBCS (@NBCSAthletics) August 6, 2024

The collective bargaining agreement that went into effect in 2022 ostensibly has anti-tanking measures, including an NBA-style draft lottery that notably limits revenue-sharing recipients (such as the White Sox) to lottery picks in just two straight seasons.

Even then, though, there was dissension in the player ranks.

"If you look at the breakdown of payrolls, that bottom half compared to the top, you're not seeing all teams compete," Giolito, then still with Chicago, told ESPN's Jesse Rogers. "I would have liked to see a little more impacting behavior type of thing when it comes to the tanking."

And this was Michael Lorenzen: "I'm held accountable to be the best I can be. Otherwise, I'm sent down or released. There should be something for teams, too."

To be clear, nothing can stop onrushes of injury, ineffectiveness and bad transactions, the likes of which have doomed the White Sox. However, there should indeed be guardrails meant to insulate teams from this much futility.

An EPL-style system of promotion and relegation would be the ultimate system of accountability. Under such a system, teams as bad as the White Sox would be at risk of getting booted out of MLB until they prove themselves worthy again. Wouldn't that be something?

But since things that are never going to happen are, well, never going to happen, it's best to keep the brainstorming within the realm of possibility. Specifically, where spending is concerned.

There probably aren't carrots that could get tight-fisted owners to spend more, but sticks that might do the job include a reverse luxury tax (i.e., a soft payroll floor) and tax penalties based on how many games a team loses.

All this and more should be on the table when it comes time for MLB and the MLB Players Association to renegotiate the CBA in 2026. A recipe for a contentious process if there ever was one, but that's where the 2024 White Sox could actually prove useful:

As a warning of how bad it can get.

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Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference, FanGraphs and Baseball Savant.