The White Sox are the first team to reach the playoffs after back-to-back 100-loss seasons

The Chicago White Sox finished 84-78 this season, two years after losing 121 games, and became the first American or National League team since 1901 to follow consecutive 100-loss seasons with a playoff berth. There were 27 earlier runs of two or more 100-loss seasons, and every one of those teams missed the postseason the following year.

It was three bad seasons, not two

The Sox went 61-101 in 2023, 41-121 in 2024 and 60-102 in 2025. The 121 losses in 2024 are the most by any team since 1900, one more than the 1962 Mets, which makes this the first club to reach the postseason after three straight 100-loss years as well as two.

Most teams in this spot don't get back to .500

The chart shows how teams usually fare the year after a run like that. Of the 28 teams that came off two or more 100-loss seasons, 26 finished below .500, and the median team won 42.6% of its games, about 69 wins over a 162-game schedule. Only the 1974 Texas Rangers, at 84-76, and this year's Sox, at 84-78, cleared .500.

The expanded playoffs did part of the work

The obvious objection is that Chicago needed the six-team field each league has used since 2022, and the data supports it. The 1974 Rangers had a better winning percentage (.525 to .519) and the fourth-best record in the American League, but only the two division winners advanced that year. The Sox finished a game behind Cleveland in the AL Central and got in as a wild card, and every 100-loss team that has made the next season's playoffs, from the 2017 Twins to the 2024 Royals, did it in the wild-card era.

The turnaround was large but not historic

The 24-win jump from 60 wins to 84 was the biggest in baseball this year, ahead of Tampa Bay's 21. Since 1901 it ties for 47th among full-season improvements. The 1999 Arizona Diamondbacks hold the mark for the 162-game era at 35 wins, and the 2024 Royals went from 56 wins to 86 and a playoff spot only two seasons ago.

What's next

The Sox swept Houston in the Wild Card Series, 6-3 and 7-3, for their first postseason series win since 2005, and their Division Series with Cleveland is tied 2-2 with Game 5 tonight in Cleveland. At the other end of the standings, the Colorado Rockies have now lost 100 games four years running, one season short of the five straight by the 1938–42 Phillies.

How we counted: every AL and NL team since 1901 with two or more consecutive 100-loss seasons, from the Lahman Baseball Database, with 2026 standings from Baseball-Reference and StatsCrew. We use winning percentage because schedules have ranged from 60 games (2020) to 162. Federal League and Negro Leagues seasons are not included. The Rockies' streak is still active, so the chart shows 28 teams.