5 things that went wrong for the 2022 Chicago White Sox
By Tim Healey
The Chicago White Sox ended at 81-81. A .500 record for a team that was expected to win the American League Central Division with ease and perhaps take the next step in the playoffs and wins a series. Some pundits even predicted them to win the American League or the World Series.
That obviously did not happen. There are many reasons why and we’re going to examine a few of them. From (now former) Sox manager Tony La Russa to injuries to massive underachievement to bad luck to improved competition to poor roster construction to disappointing bullpen pitching, just about everything went wrong for the 2022 Chicago White Sox.
Hopefully, some of the issues are fixable and will be fixed. But for the pessimists among us, some issues seem unfixable. Others might require painful choices to address. For example – should Jose Abreu return or is the roster better off if he doesn’t?
The 2022 Chicago White Sox weren’t even as close to as good as they should have been.
Regardless of what the future holds, the 2022 season was a rough ride for White Sox fans. The expectations were high, especially after fans sat through a long rebuild. Instead, the Sox got walked off by a terrible Detroit Tigers team and long-time Sox nemesis Javier Baez on Opening Day in Detroit. It was mostly all downhill from there.
Indeed, the Sox started 6-2 over the first eight games and things seemed fine. But then an eight-game skid left them 6-10.
While it seemed like there was plenty of time for a talented team to recover and right the ship, they never did. The good news is the Sox never dipped under 5 games below .500.
The bad news is that they never were 5 games above .500 at any point either. Let’s take a look at the carnage: