The long slog of MLB's regular season is over, and the White Sox have finished 2025 with a 60-102 record after Sunday's 8-0 victory over the Washington Nationals.
The 60 wins represent a 19-win improvement from 2024. In baseball, such a year-over-year increase would normally be cause for thunderous applause. But when you're coming off a season in which you were the worst team in the 125-year history of modern baseball, perhaps that increase is only a modest step forward. The bar was set so low.
The Sox started September by winning eight of the first 10 games during the month. At that point, their record was 57-90, and fans were actively rooting for the team to avoid 100 losses. Alas, the Sox concluded the season with a dreadful final two weeks, dropping 12 of their last 15 games.
That sentenced them to their third consecutive 100-loss season. The franchise has lost 100 or more games in its 125-year existence only seven times. Four of those seven seasons have occurred since 2018. It's a huge indictment on everyone who has been in a decision-making role with the franchise over the past 10 to 15 years.
Although, let's be honest: If the Sox had finished 63-99, would that have been meaningfully better than going 60-102? I don't think so.
Either way, the Sox have the best odds of getting the No. 1 pick in the 2026 MLB Draft. May the lottery luck be with them, because the franchise could use a break.
The narrative around the team is surprisingly positive, with the cheerleaders on the TV broadcast and some in the podcast arena touting performances from rookie players -- including Colson Montgomery, Shane Smith, Kyle Teel, Chase Meidroth, Edgar Quero and Mike Vasil.
Indeed, each of these players showed well enough to stick in the majors after they were called up. Nobody fell flat on their faces. Nobody got sent back to the minor leagues from that group. If you've followed the Sox through the years, you know that's something.
The question is, can they do it again in 2026 when there are more expectations placed upon them?
Many people have wondered whether the improved won-loss record and the emergence of this rookie class means 2025 was a success for the Sox.
I have two thoughts on that: First, a 100-loss season is never a success. Never. It's a catastrophe. Second, that said, the losing serves a purpose if young players learn from it, grow and get better in the years ahead.
Ask me again in two years whether 2025 was a success. If all these young guys actually form the core of a contending team down the road, then yes, this could be a year that you look back on as a building block. But if all these guys regress, and this leads to nothing in particular, then we're just circling the drain over and over again.
