It's been written about by every pundit on the planet by now, so you don't need a reminder just how bad the 2024 Chicago White Sox were.
They finished dead last in most pitching and offensive categories. Their only All-Star caliber player, starting pitcher Garret Crochet, was dealt to the Boston Red Sox in exchange for top catching prospect Kyle Teel and three other minor leaguers. They finished last season with 121 losses, the most in modern MLB history.
Suffice to say, it'd be pretty hard for the team to have a worse season this year than it did in 2024. And yet, with injury issues sweeping the team in spring training, 2025 is off to a very bad start for the worst team in baseball.
Andrew Benintendi, Ky Bush injuries could doom White Sox before season begins
Ky Bush, a top pitching prospect acquired in the Lucas Giolito/Reynaldo Lopez trade in 2023, was ruled out for the season a few weeks ago after requiring Tommy John surgery.
That leaves Martin Perez, Jonathan Cannon, Sean Burke, Davis Martin and Bryse Wilson as the projected starting rotation for the team this season. If you haven't heard of most of those pitchers, that's okay — almost none of them have done anything of note in the MLB.
That fivesome collectively was worth just 2.4 WAR in 2024. In 2025, FanGraphs projects them to be worth 5.0 WAR as a unit, or roughly equal to what Crochet is projected to do on his own in Boston. Bush wasn't going to transform the rotation by himself, but his high-upside presence will be sorely missed in a group that's playing more for trade deadline auditions than the White Sox.
As if that injury weren't bad enough, Chicago was dealt a gut punch on the last day of February when it was announced that outfielder Andrew Benintendi would miss at least the first month of the season with a hand fracture.
#WhiteSox Andrew Benintendi left the game with a hand/wrist injury after being hit by a pitch. pic.twitter.com/nvuioPqEn1
— Mike Kurland (@Mike_Kurland) February 27, 2025
Benintendi signed with the White Sox in 2023 on a five-year, $75 million contract. He hasn't been all that great on the South Side thus far — he's hitting .246/.309/.374 (90 wRC+) with poor defensive stats — but he was in position to be one of the team's best trade chips at the deadline in July.
It's worth noting that after returning from an Achilles injury last June, the outfielder slashed .251/.326/.470 (124 wRC+) the rest of the way for the league's worst offense. There was a chance that Benintendi, 30, had rediscovered his All-Star stroke and was on his way to a solid season. Alas, he'll now have to head out on a rehab assignment in April before he even has a chance to play.
And that about sums up the shape of the 2025 White Sox right now. Prospects with bright futures? Out for the entire season with a serious elbow injury. Valuable trade chips that could help accelrate the rebuild? Injured and unlikely to have enough time to produce ahead of the trade deadline to pique the interest of other teams.
It's highly unlikely the team loses 120+ games again this year. If that's the only silver lining for the White Sox right now, though, everyone should be praying for their fans.