DETROIT — Every baseball season is a grind.
That’s just the nature of the 162-game campaign.
There’s a grind, and then there’s what the 2024 Chicago White Sox have experienced throughout the season as they inched closer to baseball futility.
“(The season is) long no matter what, whether you’re winning or losing,” first baseman/designated hitter Gavin Sheets said this week. “Obviously this year’s been difficult, losing your manager in the middle of the year, the turnover, the turnover of the trade deadline.
“It’s been a long year and something everybody has learned something from and should make all of us better.”
The Sox matched the record for most losses in a season in modern-day major-league history Sunday, falling 4-2 to the San Diego Padres at Petco Park. They held off surpassing the 1962 expansion New York Mets, who went 40-120, over their next three games by sweeping the Los Angeles Angels.
The Sox entered Friday’s series opener against the Detroit Tigers with a 39-120 record.
Through the ups and largely downs, the players have stuck together.
“That’s the only way we’ve gotten through this season,” starter Davis Martin said. “People always ask how do you get through it. It’s a really tough season but when you show up to the ballpark and you thoroughly enjoy every guy in this locker room, and you almost look forward to it, it’s like seeing your friend in school.”
That camaraderie has stood out to left fielder Andrew Benintendi.
“This is my fourth team, and it seems like you meet really good guys and this clubhouse is filled with them,” Benintendi said.
The group has tried to navigate through the choppiest of waters.
It’s a remarkable freefall for an organization that earned an American League wild-card spot in 2020 and won the AL Central title in 2021.
Sheets is one of few players remaining on the roster who participated on the 2021 club that made the postseason.
“Certainly wasn’t expecting here in ‘21 to be in this position,” Sheets said. “As players, that falls on us. At the end of the day, wins and losses are how we do on the field. It’s sad to be in this position right now and hopefully this is the last time we’re in this position.”
The Sox received increased national attention as the losing continued.
“It’s brought on by us,” Sheets said. “It’s brought on by a long season. It’s brought on by our performance. It’s where we’re at right now, unfortunately. At the end of the day, it doesn’t change what we do when we go on the field. Every day we take the field, we’re expecting to win and we’re giving everything we’ve got.
“Obviously, this isn’t the kind of attention we want. I’ve been here, this is my fourth year now. I’ve had the really good attention and now the really bad attention. Hopefully this is something we move on from. I think everybody in (the clubhouse) has learned a lot. The biggest thing for us is getting over this year and making sure this never happens again.”
Interim manager Grady Sizemore’s message since taking over in early August has been not to worry about the record.
“I’m not talking about it with them and they’re not talking about it with me,” Sizemore said. “I don’t know how they’re handling it but I know they’re handling their business as far as what I want them to do, what we talk about in meetings. Things to work on, improve from the night or series before.
“That’s been my message and focus and the feedback I’m getting from them is not about the record, it’s how they’re feeling, what they need and what they need to work on. It’s trying to find the competitive edge we need.”
Starter Garrett Crochet said it’s good to “turn the page” after a season like this.
“It’s tough that it feels like a lost year when you look at the record, but it never truly is one,” Crochet said. “We’ve got a lot of areas, individually and as a team, that we can grow in, and now it’s just taking it into the offseason and working toward that.”
While it’s a year for the record book, the players are keeping in mind the possibility of writing new chapters in the future.
“Nobody can be happy to see, seeing your name attached to a record like that,” center fielder Luis Robert Jr. said through an interpreter. “But one year can’t define your career. One year can’t define your life. Life goes on and you can try to come back next year and do better and go from there.
“One year, one season can’t define your career or your life.”
