Two seasons ago, the Chicago White Sox were 41-121 with the worst record in baseball. In 2026, the White Sox are 66-60 and currently lead the American League Central Division.
It’s one of the biggest two-year rebounds among modern-era teams that lost at least 110 games.
USA TODAY analyzed ballclubs two seasons after a 110-or-more-loss season and found that Chicago currently has the third-best, year-2 winning percentage in the modern era (1901 or later).
Better than the White Sox’s current .524 winning percentage is the Baltimore Orioles, who went 52-110 in 2021 and then posted a 101-win, .623% season in 2023.
The 2013 Houston Astros also held a better second-year season: After going 51-111 in 2013, Houston went 86-76 in 2015, good for a .531 winning
percentage.
All told, only four of the 21 previous 110-loss teams with a completed second season finished above .500.
Chicago could be the fifth to join that subset if it doesn’t suffer a collapse in the final weeks of the season. To surpass .500, the White Sox will need to go at least 16-20 the rest of the way.
The other two clubs that improved to a winning record were the Boston Braves/Bees in 1935-37 and the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2021-23. The 1932 Boston Red Sox also managed to reach .500 in 1934 but did not pass it.
Every other team had a losing record in year two.
However, it’s notable that 20 of the 21 teams analyzed did improve upon their 110-loss record two years later. The one that didn’t: the New York Mets, who went 51-111 in 1963 and then 50-112 in 1965.
In terms of postseason success, only the 2023 Diamondbacks went on to win a multi-game playoff series; Arizona went on to lose the World Series to Texas that year.
The 2015 Astros and 2023 Orioles also reached the postseason, but neither won a multi-game series (Houston did win the AL Wild Card game, however).
So, if the White Sox were to make a deep playoff run reminiscent of their 2005 World Series win — the last time Chicago won a postseason series — they’ll need to buck another trend. But, as it turns out, this team is already used to ignoring historical precedent.
Methodology: Modern era (1901 or later) teams with 110 losses or more and their corresponding record two seasons later were pulled from the MLB Stats API. The 2025 Colorado Rockies team that went 43-119 were excluded from the analysis because they have yet to reach their year-2 season. The 2026 White Sox record is current through August 19 games.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How the White Sox went from 121 losses to rare MLB company
