The Colorado Rockies immediately made a run at the 2024 White Sox's single-season record for losses last year, but came up two short with a 43-119 finish. There are no such challengers this time around; in fact, there may be no 100-loss teams in Major League Baseball if the Rockies and Angels can outperform their season-long pace by one win the rest of the way.
But the Washington Nationals chipped away part of that White Sox team's notoriety on Tuesday. They led the Padres 4-1 entering the eighth, only to give up four runs in the bottom of the inning en route to their 38th blown save of the season in a 5-4 loss, leaving the White Sox and their 37 blown saves from 2024 in the dust.
Initially, it's surprising that a team nowhere near as bad as the 2024 White Sox could break that record with weeks to spare. The loss dropped the Nats to 67-80, but they've already beaten their preseason projection with 15 games to go.
But the Nationals have one of the best offenses in baseball and one of the worst pitching staffs, which is a combination that generates save opportunities to blow -- perhaps multiple opportunities in the same game. The sheer volume is what put them over the top, because while they've blown 38 saves, they've saved 34 games. That results in 47 percent save percentage, which, bad as it may be, isn't even the worst mark in baseball this year.
What made the 2024 White Sox special is having one of the worst pitching staffs to go with the worst offense, so when the bullpen blew a save -- as it did in 37 of 58 opportunities -- a dead team stayed dead. That 36.2 percent conversion rate is the worst by any team in a non-COVID year since the save became an official stat in 1969.
Starters are throwing fewer innings than ever, which leaves more leads to be blown after the fifth inning, so I'm guessing more teams will pass the 2024 White Sox's total in the coming years. If any team challenges the White Sox's save rate over 162 games, they'll have reproduced a much closer sense of that particular hell.
Spare Parts
Over the course of the last two years, Matt Grabowski, the White Sox's director of acquisitions, has been cited in numerous transactions, be they deadline trades, Rule 5 projects or first-round draft picks. James goes more into detail about the significance of the acquisition department, which Josh Barfield describes as a "hub," with spokes like scouting and training branching off that.
With Tampa Bay and Oakland on their way to fully resolving their stadium issues one way or another, Major League Baseball is finally clear to field two expansion teams, and Jeff Passan goes through the six favorites -- Nashville, Raleigh, Montreal and Orlando in the east, and Salt Lake City and Portland in the west. Passan still refers to Nashville as a favorite, but it's coming to a point where the lack of a money person, stadium site and funding will need concrete answers. (Even though Nashville would benefit me personally, I'm pro-Montreal.)
I'd be surprised if Major League Baseball punished Doug Eddings further than the reprimand Ken Rosenthal reported after Eddings told a rookie Cardinals pitcher to straighten out his cap, leading to the ejection of manager Oli Marmol, just because umpires aren't usually punished for single-game occurrences. But it also seems like there's room for the league to follow up, whether it's because Eddings had a saucy "call confirmed" announcement on a Cardinals review before the incident, blew a call at the plate aftreward, or said a Rockies player pointed out Hancel Rincon's cap when they said they did no such thing.
Shane McClanahan and Garrett Cleavinger hit the injured list with forearm tightness, so even the team with the American League's best record might not be anywhere close to its strongest come playoff time.
Join us at 11 a.m. to discuss the implications of Sean Burke's ugly outing against Pittsburgh Tuesday night:
