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Clint Frazier began his career as a promising prospect with the New York Yankees. But after the Yankees designated him for assignment following the 2021 season and he failed to stick with the Chicago Cubs, Frazier had the misfortune of ending up with the Chicago White Sox in 2023. He would be out of the majors the following year, mercifully missing Chicago's historically awful 2024 season. But the dynamic that allowed the White Sox to become the worst team in baseball history was already in place during their 101-loss 2023 campaign.
Now retired, Frazier offered fans a glimpse into the dysfunction that shaped the White Sox’s record-breaking 121-loss season. “Challenging the people that were in charge was all I saw. Like prisoners running the asylum,” Frazier explained, per Foul Territory on X.
Frazier recounted one memorable moment that occurred shortly after he joined the team. An unnamed player failed to run out of the box and White Sox manager Pedro Grifol confronted him, saying he would remove him from the game for the lack of hustle.
“This guy looked back at the manager and was basically like, ‘If you take me out of this game, we’re gonna have a serious problem.’ And [Grifol] was like, ‘Are you threatening me?’ And he goes, ‘Take me out of this game and we’re gonna have a serious problem.’ And like, this guy did not come out the game. And I was like, ‘Holy– this guy, he just threatened the manager!’ And he stayed in the game and was in the lineup every day moving forward,” Frazier said, seemingly still in disbelief over the incident.
The 2024 White Sox were a study in dysfunction
Grifol returned in 2024 to manage the club but he wouldn’t survive the season as the White Sox fired the manager after the team fell to a nauseating 28-89. However, his ouster didn't prevent Chicago from finishing with the worst record in modern baseball history.
It took 62 years for a team as bad as the 2024 White Sox to come along and break the 1962 New York Mets' all-time loss record. But incredibly, Chicago’s record of 121 losses will likely only stand for one year as the Colorado Rockies are expected to surpass the mark in a profoundly miserable 2025 season.
The Rockies fell to an abysmal 17-58 Thursday. That puts the team on pace to lose 125 games in 2025. For context, the White Sox were 20-55 this time last season.
At one point the Rockies were poised to obliterate the White Sox’s record for futility. Colorado got off to the worst 50-game start in 130 years, and were at one point on pace for a mind-boggling 137-loss season.
Since then the team has improved slightly. But the Rockies are still on track to let the White Sox off the hook just one year after Chicago's putrid 2024 season.
