The 2024 Chicago White Sox were among the worst Major League teams of the modern era. The 2025 version ... might somehow be even worse? Chicago entered play against the Minnesota Twins on Thursday afternoon with a 5-19 record through its first 24 games; that's roughly a 34-win pace over a full season, well below the 41 games the team won last year.
And things might get much worse before they get better. Sure, Chris Getz has finally started replenishing the team's farm system, which has eight players on MLB Pipeline's current top 100 list. In the near term, though, Chicago has lost eight of nine — and with the sort of lineup they ran out on Thursday, you can understand why.
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Latest White Sox lineup has to have Luis Robert begging for a trade
It's tough to quantify just how sorry this starting lineup is. We could point to the five players in it with batting averages currently below .200, or the fact that only three have an OPS at or above league average, or the fact that Bobby Dalbec — a former top Red Sox prospect who had to shift from third base to first base due to his limited range — is the team's shortstop. Or we could just let you feast your eyes.
Today's White Sox lineup ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/Cl0nHwEDWq
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) April 24, 2025
Granted, Robert has been as big a part of the problem as anyone so far. The toolsy center fielder is currently slashing .145/.267/.250 with 27 strikeouts to just four extra-base hits through his first 22 games; it'll be tough for Chicago to convince anyone to trade for him if those numbers don't improve.
But at least Robert offers the potential for something more than the Mendoza Line, which is more than you can say for ... well, for pretty much this entire lineup. The goal here is not to be a competitive Major League team. It's to invest as little as possible in the big-league product until the kids arrive and hopefully start turning things around, and that's a rough place for a starting-caliber player in his prime like Robert to be.